Unsettling the Settler: An Arts-Based Exploration

Abstract

This article considers how meta-narratives can be created through arts-based educational research as a way to shift personal positions and values, using a monologue called Unsettling the settler, written by the author. The creation of meta-narratives that disrupt ideas of national identity, the safety and security of patriarchal and colonial regimes, and who gets to decide what knowledge is worth knowing are essential as antiracist solidarity processes that seek to create belongingness, care and responsibility. This article picks up a thread from a long-term research project in which the author learnt from her participants (actors, audience members and the production team) that performing anti-racist, decolonizing work necessarily begins with an examination of one’s positionality (i.e., body/position/identity/race/cultural background, etc.). “Doing the work” means that one must be committed to sitting with discomfort and accept that there are no easy solutions as a part of the process of change.