Leisure and trauma-informed practice

ABSTRACT

Leisure has the potential to contribute to processes of colonization and decolonization. In this paper, we propose using trauma-informed practice as part of a decolonizing process in leisure service provision. While trauma-informed practice continues to have it critiques and limitations from a decolonizing perspective, its recognition of the widespread impact of trauma, the role colonization plays in this trauma, and the value it places on safety, trust, empowerment, collaboration, and practitioner humility and responsiveness may provide leisure professional guidance in decolonizing their practice. This paper presents a project involving Indigenous women, which incorporated aspects of TIP into the facilitation of an arts-based leisure workshop. Using poetic-representation—a method purposefully used to evoke and awaken emotions, the paper highlights experiences of challenge, discovery and release, and collective responsibility. Implications emphasize engaging in a conscious and deliberate process that incorporates arts-based leisure, aims to address colonization (e.g., trauma and oppressive systemic structures), and works towards social justice.

KEYWORDS:

• arts-based leisure
• decolonzation
• healing
• Indigenous women
• trauma-informed practice
• culture

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. To echo African American scholar Dumas (2016), we do not capitalise white in this paper because it is a social construct and ‘does not describe a group with a sense of common experiences or kinship outside of acts of colonisation and terror’ (p. 13).

2. In Canada, the term Indigenous is used to represent three distinct groups of first peoples: First Nations, Inuit, and Métis. Native, Aboriginal, and more recently Indigenous are terms that have replaced Indian. The people I met in this project referred to themselves using all four terms.

3. This preliminary analysis consisted of process integrated into the last day of the workshop, where participants viewed the artwork of their fellow artists and competed the phrase for each piece: ‘I see a person living with ____________and_________________’. In this process, words such as transformation, hope, strong history, and vibrant strong spirit emerged.

4. A preliminary version of this poem was first published in Yuen (2018).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Felice Yuen

Felice Yuen is a Professor in the Department of Applied Human Sciences at Concordia University. Her research focuses on leisure, healing, and community development.

Rosemary Reilly

Rosemary Reilly is a Professor in the Department of Applied Human Sciences at Concordia University. Her research interests include social creativity and the impact of trauma on communities.

Sandra Sjollema

Sandra Sjollema completed her PhD at Concordia University. She is a poet, researcher, and community organizer.