Reclaiming and sharing aspects of the sacred and the spiritual on sites of conflict and contestation as peace-making through The Arts and Arts Education.

Abstract

This paper encourages new thinking about how peace studies and artistic practice, learning and research can inform each other in transformatory ways. It proposes a community-cultural-development model that is based on the principles of democracy, sustainability and ethical cross-cultural engagement as a means to facilitate positive social change through partnerships in art-making. An Indigenous Cultural Place-making Project in public parklands surrounding a town harbour on the Australian east coast, that reclaims and shares aspects of the sacred and the spiritual on sites of conflict and contestation, will be the focus of the presentation.