New Skies Above: Sense-bound and place-based songwriting as a trauma response for asylum seekers and refugees

Harrison, Klisala; Jacobsen, Kristina M.; Sunderland, Naomi

doi:10.1386/jaah.10.2.147_1

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…There is scarce research on lyrical song composition and trauma. Harrison et al (2019) wrote an ethnographic account of a trauma-informed, collaborative songwriting workshop with refugees and asylum-seekers in Finland, in which participants in the workshop cited improved mood and social connection. In a quantitative study, Hirschberg et al (2020), observed improved symptoms in a small sample size of veterans with PTSD in the United States after participating in a collaborative songwriting intervention with a professional songwriter.…”

Section: Music Trauma and Emotional Well-being: Resonances Across The...mentioning

confidence: 99%

"He Has Rescued Me from Danger"

Bishop

2024

Voices

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The Ethio-South Sudanese border is characterized by instability and conflict. Most populations in this area have experienced violence and displacement and face ongoing insecurity and political inequality. During my fieldwork in the region, several composers gave accounts of how composing and singing Christian songs provided them with comfort and hope in times of hardship, particularly following episodes of violence. Using ethnographic research and interviews as primary methodologies, this article explores how these individuals use religious music-making as a means of coping and resilience in the wake of trauma. The primary goal of this article is to provide a platform for their stories. The secondary goal is to explore resonances between their accounts and scholarly observations about potential roles of music-making in trauma resilience across disciplines. I focus particularly on themes of embodied music-making, community connection, and spirituality. All point to the same phenomenon: that music can play a role in human resilience and meaning-making. Finally, I make suggestions on how to enhance mental health care in culturally-relevant ways in a religious society such as in Ethiopia, as well as draw out cross-cultural implications for mental health care in the western system.

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Section: Music Trauma and Emotional Well-being: Resonances Across The...mentioning

confidence: 99%

"He Has Rescued Me from Danger"

Bishop

2024

Voices

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“…This theme also relates to those raised above concerning the importance of musical care in enhancing wellbeing, broadening the traditional deficit model of medicalized care (for a discussion of deficit models in medical care, see e.g., Fullagar & O’Brien, 2014; Tsiris, 2013). This move away from the deficit model is championed by many researchers and practitioners who themselves have lived experience of care (Gillard et al, 2021; Harrison et al, 2019).…”

Section: Positioning Musical Carementioning

confidence: 99%

Perspectives on Musical Care Throughout the Life Course: Introducing the Musical Care International Network

Spiro,

Sanfilippo,

McConnell

et al. 2023

Music & Science

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In this paper we report on the inaugural meetings of the Musical Care International Network held online in 2022. The term “musical care” is defined by Spiro and Sanfilippo (2022) as “the role of music—music listening as well as music-making—in supporting any aspect of people's developmental or health needs” (pp. 2–3). Musical care takes varied forms in different cultural contexts and involves people from different disciplines and areas of expertise. Therefore, the Musical Care International Network takes an interdisciplinary and international approach and aims to better reflect the disciplinary, geographic, and cultural diversity relevant to musical care. Forty-two delegates participated in 5 inaugural meetings over 2 days, representing 24 countries and numerous disciplines and areas of practice. Based on the meetings, the aims of this paper are to (1) better understand the diverse practices, applications, contexts, and impacts of musical care around the globe and (2) introduce the Musical Care International Network. Transcriptions of the recordings, alongside notes taken by the hosts, were used to summarise the conversations. The discussions developed ideas in three areas: (a) musical care as context-dependent and social, (b) musical care's position within the broader research and practice context, and (c) debates about the impact of and evidence for musical care. We can conclude that musical care refers to context-dependent and social phenomena. The term musical care was seen as useful in talking across boundaries while not minimizing individual disciplinary and professional expertise. The use of the term was seen to help balance the importance and place of multiple disciplines, with a role to play in the development of a collective identity. This collective identity was seen as important in advocacy and in helping to shape policy. The paper closes with proposed future directions for the network and its emerging mission statement.

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The ‘becomings’: singing and songwriting with mothers and midwives at South-East Queensland

Mani

2022

Health Promotion International

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Plain language summary How can songwriting show us the meaning of music and language for health and wellbeing in culturally and linguistically diverse mothers? This article examines the artistic processes in music-cum-health workshops involving new and expectant mothers and their midwives. The voices of the mothers of colour have been silenced historically and systemically. To give them social justice in a health context, singing is a powerful tool and songwriting links this tool to useful health messages. Through this article, the formation of a song on the placenta, a key part of the womb in childbearing, is traced through the stories of a music facilitator, a mother and a midwife. The storying highlights the importance of artistic processes for understanding the person within and their cultural identity. The article argues that cultural understanding of the participants in such arts-in-health programmes is important for socially just models of health care for those at the margins. Summary From being instrumentalized as interventions that are ‘administered’ with an aim to garner health outcomes, art-based participatory approaches are now recognized as capable of activating culturally founded wellbeing in individuals. Through this article, I propose that as the focus shifts from what art does for health to what art means for a healthy life, the cultural vitality inherent in individuals and societies can be better championed in arts-in-health discourses. I discuss the artistic processes in singing and songwriting in a perinatal context involving mothers from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and their midwives. I argue for lenses to better understand the role of cultural practices in health research involving migrant and refugee communities. Using narrative inquiry, I trace intersecting trajectories wherein the storied life of a coloured mother is intercepted by that of a midwife, and of myself, a coloured female mother-researcher and facilitator. At the intersection emerges a song, as a process and product. This article advances that it is when artmaking processes are centred that the voices from the margins become heard, and it is when their voices are amplified that health research design becomes equitable and ethically sound.

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New Skies Above: Sense-bound and place-based songwriting as a trauma response for asylum seekers and refugees

Cited by 3 publications

References 18 publications

"He Has Rescued Me from Danger"

"He Has Rescued Me from Danger"

Perspectives on Musical Care Throughout the Life Course: Introducing the Musical Care International Network

The ‘becomings’: singing and songwriting with mothers and midwives at South-East Queensland

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