Cultivating response*ability: Tending an art garden over time

This arts-based, personal inquiry capstone project provides a retrospective summary of my learnings and reflections from nurturing an art garden located on a double-wide private city lot outside my home in Nelson, BC, Canada. Over ten years, often alongside family and neighbours, I intentionally layered regenerative land care practices with mindful observation and responsive artmaking, transforming my yard into a garden space for personal, community, and ecological healing. In this project, I describe my integration of novice land care knowledge with eco-arts expressive therapies and Indigenous ecological agriculture (regenerative land care) practices for healing and well-being. With this inquiry, I aimed to use creative activities to cultivate a greater awareness of and responsiveness to my environment through seasonal practices I hope to pass on to my children.

My project is grounded in anti-oppressive, trauma-informed, and relational ecoart therapy approaches. The theoretical frameworks I have used in this project to consider the efficacy of my seasonal art gardening for healing are the Expressive

Therapies Continuum (ETC) and Circle of Courage frameworks. Throughout this journey, I experienced a transformation in my relationship with myself and my environment, marked by increased awareness, reduced anxiety, and a deepening sense of abundance and belonging. Additionally, I documented my family’s art garden activities in a Waldorf school-inspired perennial calendar, visually articulating the rituals of our seasonal interactions and contributing to my ongoing journey to decolonize my understanding of healing while honouring specific Indigenous regenerative land care teachings, generously shared at this time, for the benefit of all beings and places.

Keywords: arts-based personal inquiry, art garden, regenerative land care, Indigenous ecological agriculture practices, anti-oppressive, trauma-informed, relational eco-art therapy, Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC), Circle of Courage, Waldorf school perennial calendars, decolonize