Art Therapy as Turmeric
This is a little observation sharing, food for thought, or may I say "tea" for discussion.
If you are a Canadian, you would be very well familiar with a healthy Turmeric Latte Tea. Imagine this: sometime in the afternoon sipping your well-proportioned, temperature-adjusted, frosted-to-perfection turmeric latte sitting with your girlfriend, dressed in Lulu Lemon pants and I-watch that just finished calculating the steps you took from your Toyota hybrid to the terrace of the Starbucks coffee shop, somewhere on the corner of Vancouver Street and Vancouver Street. Sounds about right.
Now I want to take you to the turmeric consumption of Australia. Government-approved, checked, stamped, capsuled, dated, and measured Turmeric pills on the shelves of the drug stores will be marketed to you as new and fashionable, required for all respected healthy, and modern Australians. Fresh turmeric, on the other hand, can be purchased in tiny quantities in supermarkets for the price of an ounce of gold. Turmeric is a drug in Australia, monitored by the pharmaceutical industry and regulated by retail taxes.
Let's jump to the Western Pacific Ocean: Fiji and Vanuatu.
Fiji is assimilated by Indian population. When you ask native Fijian what your national food is, they have to think for a moment, but more often they say that it is curry! Curry takes turmeric, so much loved and cultivated by Indians. Turmeric for Indians is more than food spice, it is part of the culture, it is used as remedy, as part of rituals, foods, drinks. It is part of who they are. And now they introduced it to happy Fijians, who absorbed it naturally and mixed it with their coconut fish and squid cuisine. Turmeric is now a cultural element rubbed into the skin, added to the creams, teas, food. It is used daily, organically, and naturally.
Vanuatu is abundant with turmeric. It is present there as a staple. Beyond being a spice, it is part of routine, and added to the taro and sweet potatoes daily. Turmeric is at the heart of every meal, not even being acknowledged as anything special, it is just there. Something like potatoes for Irish, bread to Russians, cheese for French.
Indonesia is one of the world exporters of Turmeric. Nothing is else to add. Turmeric connects the nations, heals, nurtures, tells stories, feeds families and nations.
So you might say, the naturally hot weather spice made its way to white and modern societies. And we incorporate it into our culture sophisticatedly, and regulate it, as always. Nothing surprising or new. Complex societies require more complex introduction to the products, distribution, and consumption.
Art Therapy is very much distributed, consumed in those countries in a similar way to turmeric.
Imagine a loud conch horn call, accompanied by the shakes made from seed pods, a performer telling a story of the Taro gods, while bare feet and covered in paint and grass skirt, drawing in the sand mesmerizing never ending design that transforms from one image to another and suddenly stops with a magical surprise of the ancient turtle or fluttering butterfly. The chanting, sand-drawing, sound making takes you out of this world to the mythical sense of old stories. The performance is transformational not only in the matter of the sand images but in the way they touch your imagination and soul. The art performance becomes an art therapy, connecting you to ancient times through sound and movements, hypnotizing, reviving your hidden feelings and powers. This "custom" is part of the daily life in Vanuatu.
The art making, storytelling, music is not packaged and sold for a price, it is an element of each person, it is individual extension.
Fijians sing. They sing all the time. They dance. Singing and dancing are elements of culture. Art Therapy is not familiar to Fijians as a discipline. At least I could not find it. But there is abundance of singing, dancing, performing, and art-making, including gardening.
Art therapy in Australia is commercialized. Art Therapy Association prints little instructional pamphlets on every occasion possible simplistically outlining session procedures. For example, a pamphlet on how to provide art therapy if you just had a divorce, or if you had a cancer operation. One-page cheat sheet, just in case you forgot. Certainly, approved, marketed, digitalized, and priced by the association. I am glad I do not have to practice the art of art therapy in Australia. I had a small discussion with one brilliant therapist who does a huge amount of support work for kids affected by floods in Australia. She is run by regulations. The strict and clear understanding that she is hired by the school authorities and has no right to talk to parents surprised me, but for her, it is just a norm. Art therapy is paid by the school and provided for school purposes. I was in awe of her work skills and dedication to kids, but personally have a severe aversion to authoritative limits in the approach I am supposed to use in my craft if I am Australian.
For me, art therapy is a way to free people, to inspire, to connect, and to heal. Like music, it should be available to all and everyone. Like music, art therapy has many styles and approaches. It is art in itself and should not be regulated as a drug. Yes, you might have discretion on what music is appropriate for what occasion and person, but each artist is free to perform it they need.
In Canada, people are generally very polite and painstakingly apologetic. I think it comes from the historically accumulated feeling of guilt of being war deserters, or maybe peacemakers. In contrast to almost-militia like Australia, who come from imprisonment and severe isolation history, Canadians are soft and gentle. Australians are motivated and organized by law and administrative punishment. The fear of law and surveillance in Australia permeates through the air. Canadians on the other hand, always ask for permission to exist, to be there and now. As if still running from imperial prosecution. Art therapy in Canada is the same. Art therapists are trying continually to prove that it is good and necessary to use art therapy. Art therapists are almost apologetic for their qualities and their abilities to express, connect, and feel, to use sacred art for healing. They are trying to convince themselves and society around that art therapy is valid, solid, and deserves its place in the world. Australians give out institutionalized brief instructions on how it is going to be from now on, and Canadians ask pleadingly for permission. One is order and form, other is guilt and forgiveness cry. Both polarities are characters of young teenagers, young nations, that grew up without loving mothers and fathers, without grandparents’ stories. Pulled from their roots and thrown to survive and fend for themselves. Societal identity needs a soul, needs mystery, magic, belonging. Lack of story myth takes the country into turmoil of legalities, bureaucratism, or a weakened sense of identity, feeling sinful. On one hand, sin is eliminated by law, on the other carried internally and expressed through persistent apology.
Canadians do not have to import and package turmeric to use it. We do not have to even have it to heal ourselves with it. Turmeric is only one of the ancient substances. In our young, white privileged societies, we are like young kids discovering old and proven knowledge and then proudly trying to use it and show off our skills. Turmeric has been around for thousands of years, the same as an art therapy in the form of shamanism, or traditional multi-performances similar to Vanuatuan, or Fijian singing and dancing. Healing powers hidden in the creative natures of art belong to people, not institutions and markets, and certainly not health authorities. Healing arts should not be sold on the shelves or prescribed. It is art, it is individual, mythical, and magical. It connects us on a level beyond physical, and psychological. It heals on the soul level.
In Ireland, which for me is a spiritual home of art therapy, turmeric is not taken as any special, fashionable supplement, or daily meal spice like in Fiji. In Ireland, art therapy and healing are preserved and transformed from ancient times, from druids’ traditions, Vikings’ stories, kings and knight ballads, famine cry-songs, wars, and rebellion anecdotes. The art therapy is part of the culture. Ireland has the advantage of having a continuity of history from generation to generation. Ireland has its own mythical rhizome that holds healing powers, powers of identity, of magic, of beauty, of an ancient secret – shamrock. Shamrock is a variation of a clover leaf. Rhizome that covers the green hills of Ire. The whole nation is identified with it. There is an old wisdom in it. We are all looking for this deep unseen connection with keen like.
In India, Fiji, and Vanuatu, rhizomes of Turmeric connect the nations, stories, cultures, myths, and souls. Up North, in a cold and misty Ireland, it is the root of Shamrock.
Canada is about only seven generations old. Just a young established family. There are no thousands-old stories passed through art and creativity. Canadian art therapy is young, at its shoots. But it should not be apologetic, doesn't need to fight for its existence, for its rights. Art therapy in Canada needs to find its own flavor, its own spice, and cultural connection.
I feel Canadian art therapy has the advantage of acceptive multiculturalism, it understands, shares, and treasures wisdom and sorrow of First Nation history, it lovingly holds rich and untouched nature, and it pulls together the softness and kindness of the people. Canadians are peaceful, strong, wilderness-loving dreamers. Think of the Group of Seven art, it is soft, rounded, spatial lines reflecting wild landscapes, or the large trees of Emile Carr, or the simple and colorful art of Maud Lewis! Canadians are gentle and loving souls, devoted to nature.
I won't talk here about the influence of First Nations art. It has old roots and one day will hold a grand place in Indigenous art therapy and Canadian art therapy in general as the powers of ancient wisdom and spirit bring healing to modern folks and the nation’s reconciliation. But the "healing song" of Canada is often than not connected to the land, to the love for land, it is beauty, magnificence, magic. Eco-art therapy with a connection to our deep dreams and soft desire for peace is the core of Canadian healing. It might be not a turmeric flavor, but the healing power of dogwood or wild rose. I would like to see art therapy in Canada finding its flavor beyond drug stores, academia, and pamphlets.
