11/08/2022
Music and healing can be found across both ancient and current cultures. This book offers a concentrated attempt to deepen and broaden understandings that music therapy as a disciplinary practice serves as a site of institutional power in or over the space where health and music intersect. To do so, the book offers contributions on a variety of topics from a wide range of contributors from different cultural and regional contexts – referred to collectively as the Colonialism and Music Therapy Interlocuters (CAMTI). The topics in this book cover contemporary practice in former colonies; navigating between indigenous knowledges and colonial knowledge/practices; being the cultural ‘other’ in music therapy education and practice spaces; intersections between ableism and colonial notions of health; and explorations of music therapy’s historical and ongoing reliance on colonial systems. In an effort to make space for diverse perspectives and ways of knowing these topics, contributions range from poem, prayer and song to conversations between groups of practitioners and interested parties, as well as essays.
In essence, this book aims to start a conversation. It is an invitation for music therapists and other practitioners to reflect on how the vestiges of colonialism may or may not continue to impact their practice. It also offers a range of ideas and concepts which individuals and organizations can begin to explore in the interest of operating in anti-colonial or de-colonial ways. Ultimately, it is hoped that this book encourages a shift to honoring diverse contributions to the music and health space – as this is a space we collectively share.
CONTENTS
About the Members of the Collective
Overview of Book
Opening Karakia (Blessing)
Waireti Roestenburg
Poem: Earthen Rushing
Chrystal J. Raven
PART 1: Between Worlds
Balance Between Worlds: A Conversation Between Dr. Carolyn Kenny and Dr. Richard Vedan
Carolyn Kenny & Richard Vedan
Acting from an Emergent Third Space: Exploring Contemplative Anti-Oppressive Activism
Nsamu Moonga
Decolonize This Space: Centring Indigenous Peoples in Music Therapy Practice
Suzi Hutchings
Ranga Wairua: Inspiration and Conversation between Worlds—A Māori Sacred Sound Science Healer and a Pākehā Music Therapist Share and Interweave Stories
Waireti Roestenburg & Sarah Hoskyns
A Discussion About Colonialism, Music Therapy, and Food in Malaysia
Ming Yuan Low, Gurpreet Kaur Kalsi, Sheen Tse Kuek Ser, & Muhamad Redza Mahmud Badri
Poem: ¡bienve
ezequiel bautista
Musical Spiritual Experiences Through the Indigenous Voice
Yadira Albornoz
Crossing the Divides: Considering Postcolonial Music Therapy in the South African Context
Ndumis Mdaka & Helen Oosthuizen
Community Music Therapy and the Theory of Occupational Reconstruction: Effects of Postcolonialism in Emerging Perspectives for Social Transformation
Bernard Austin Kigunda Muriithi
Uncovering Colonialism in Music Therapy Through Indigenous Canadian Music Therapists’ Stories and Anti-Oppressive Music Therapy Analysis
Sherryl Sewepagaham, Sarah Bell, Tatyana Dobrowolski, Sierra Gladu, & Sue Baines
Poem: All My Relations
Carolyn Kenny
A Postcolonial Conversation with Five South Asian Music Therapists
Akash Bhatia, Bhuvaneswari Ramesh, Anurati Jain, Swara Swami, & Sangeeta Swamy
Music Therapy in Postcolonial India: A Possibility Through Equal Collaboration in Maintaining and Reconsidering Boundaries
Kamal Singh
PART 2: Questioning Normative Narratives
Postcolonialism, Music Therapy, and Anglophone Caribbean Contexts: A Conversation
Tamara Adams, Keisha Baisden, Martina Chow, Jamal J Glynn, & Georgi-Ann Morgan
Unsettling the Classroom and the Session: Anti-colonial Framing Through Hip Hop for Music Therapy Education and Therapeutic Work
CharCarol Fisher & Hakeem Leonard
The Agency of Hip Hop as a Force of Liberation and Healing in Music Therapy
Michael Viega, Toni Blackman, & Dre Pharoh
Song: To the Water
Tatyana Dobrowolski
Colonialism, Mental Health, Music Therapy, and Palestine: A Conversation
Zein Hassanein, Saif Fouad, Ibrahim Zuraik, & Rantia Sabbah
“You don’t understand because you’re White!”: Reflections on Postcolonial Music Therapy Practice in a Youth Justice Setting
Rachael Comte
The Coloniality of Trauma: Articulating the Need for a Paradigm Shift in Music Therapy Practice with Young People
Elly Scrine
Becoming-music as a Desettlering of Music Therapy
Jeff Smith
(Re)presenting Dominance: Colonial and Ableist Themes in Photographs of International Music Therapy Service-Learning
Vee Gilman
Autism in a Cultural Perspective and Music Therapy
Katja Gottschewski
Poem: on decolonizing and healing
Sarah Bell
PART 3: Reimagining Music Therapy Education, Theory, and Research
Imagining Postcolonial Music Therapy Education
Adenike Webb & Brian Abrams
Borders, Translation, and Cultures in Music Therapy Education, Research, and Politics: Reflections on the Roles of Colonizer and Colonized
Juanita Eslava-Mejía
Music Therapy’s Ecology of Knowledges
Brynjulf Stige
Pinning Butterfly Wings: Music Therapy Research as a Colonial Agent
Vee Gilman & Melody Schwantes
Music Therapy and the Monopolisation of Music and Health Spaces
Alexander Hew Dale Crooke & Susan Hadley
Poem: Pass Away
Nsamu Moonga
