Conversations on Music, Allyship, and Reconciliation with Indigenous Music Therapists in Canada

This study aims to connect discourses about allyship and reconciliation to music therapy by centring the voices of Indigenous practitioners. Canada is working toward reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples and aspiring allyship is a way to guide this pursuit both in general and in therapy settings. Music therapy researchers have discussed components of allyship through explorations of anti-oppressive practice, social justice, and cultural competence, but this field of scholarship is continuing to emerge. In this study, the experiences and stories of three Indigenous music therapists in Canada are analyzed within narrative inquiry and phenomenological frameworks. Data represent the personal stories, perspectives, and lived experiences of these practitioners related to the dimensions of allyship. A co-developed framework for allyship emerged that includes becoming informed, advocacy, listening and openness, collaboration and relationship, accountability, reflexivity, words and actions, and individual and community contexts. Building on this framework, the co-authors discuss allyship’s congruences with therapeutic skills and music therapy contexts to build opportunities for reconciliation in Canada.