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Art is a form of spiritual expression that is thriving in many Indigenous cultures. It can take many forms, meanings and have a multitude of emotional, mental, physical and spiritual effects on its creator as well as its audience. Amongst American Indians, art has been a method for maintaining holistic

Art is a form of spiritual expression that is thriving in many Indigenous cultures. It can take many forms, meanings and have a multitude of emotional, mental, physical and spiritual effects on its creator as well as its audience. Amongst American Indians, art has been a method for maintaining holistic well-being intended to heal and cope with traumatic experiences. In this thesis, I examine the western societal and cultural influences that have led to the loss of cultural identity and examine approaches and practices that aim to re-establish a resilient connection to identity and well-being using art as a spiritual catalyst. Literary research and articles were reviewed related to the issue of art as a form of spiritual expression in Indigenous cultures. An autoethnography was conducted with the intent to record and reflect on the well-being of the researcher in relation to her artistic expression. Journaling and vlogging were used as research methods and painting, sketching, and beading was used as artistic methods. Over the course of six months, over 50 videos with 30 hours of raw footage were recorded; averaging 2 hours per day. The results are reflected in the researchers free-flowing and emotionally driven reflection of experiences that have driven her artwork. This thesis supports the establishment of art as a form of spiritual expression for transforming the current western focused health care paradigm to one that recognizes, values and employs Indigenous insight, methodologies, worldviews, culture and spirituality.
ContributorsRobbins, Marlena (Author) / Romero-Little, Eunice (Thesis advisor) / Marley, Tennille L (Committee member) / Meders, Jacob (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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To understand the visual culture and art education practices within three ideologically distinct kindergartens, I employed an interdisciplinary approach, utilizing tools from the fields of art, education, anthropology, literary theory, visual studies and critical social theory. Each of the three schools was considered to be the "best" of its kind

To understand the visual culture and art education practices within three ideologically distinct kindergartens, I employed an interdisciplinary approach, utilizing tools from the fields of art, education, anthropology, literary theory, visual studies and critical social theory. Each of the three schools was considered to be the "best" of its kind for the community in which it resided; TBS was the original bilingual school, and the most Westernized. It was set in the heart of a major city. The second school, OBS, operated from an Islamic framework located in an under-developed small transitioning suburb; and the last school, NBS, was situated in Al-Jahra, an "outlying area" populated by those labeled as bedouins (Longva, 2006). The participants' attitudes towards art education unfolded as I analyzed my visual observations of the participants' daily practices. I have produced a counter-hegemonic visual narrative by negotiating my many subjectivities and methods to gain new knowledge and insights. This approach has provided a holistic understanding of the environment in each site, in which attitudes and practices relating to art education have been acquired by the community. Operating from three different educational paradigms, each school applied a different approach to art education. The more Westernized school viewed art as an individual act which promoted creativity and expression. In the Islamic school art was viewed as an activity that required patterning (Stokrocki, 1986), and that the child needed to be guided and exposed to the appropriate images to follow. In the bedouin school, drawing activities were viewed as an opportunity for representing one's individual story as well as a skill for emergent literacy.
ContributorsAl-Bader, Jawaher Khaled (Author) / Young, Bernard (Thesis advisor) / Margolis, Eric (Committee member) / Tobin, Joseph (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012