Arnya Songline Methodology: An Indigenous Arts-Informed Research Methodology to Guide Processes for Holistic, Ancestral Healing

Creative research methods involving arts-based practices are used by Indigenous scholars as alternatives to more traditional and extractive Western research methods that have often distorted and misrepresented First Nations knowledges in culturally biased ways. This paper describes an Indigenous culture-informed creative practice research method developed by a Wik and Wikway researcher that can be utilized to inform greater awareness of self and purpose, and process for personal and collective development. The process is fundamentally taken in exploration and reveal of the Voice within each individual that ultimately cultivates an existence of holistic well-being. The approach used incorporates creative modes of expression and inquiry to explore and reveal the Self in relation to lineage, kinship, and environment for holistic (collective) healing and listening to and utilization of an internal Voice vocabulary. Based on the creative, relational dynamic of Wik and Wikway lore systems from Western Cape York, Australia, Arnya Songline methodology (ASM) transforms ancestral teachings, cultural practices, techniques, and processes, and by application reveals its value for engaging with change and for relational healing. It uses multimodal, creative, and intergenerational forms of inquiry to express, share, and show how ancestral and relational ontologies are experienced as foundational to cultural voice and life’s flow and for knowledge creation/translation. Research with Wik and Wikway people using ASM strengthens intergenerational knowledge transmission by reconnecting people with their cultural identities, roles, and positions within their cultural kinship systems and respective lineage/s, uncovering genealogical knowledge, and healing from intergenerational unwellness and trauma. Arts-informed research practices have created space for the Arnya Songline approach to inquiry to emerge and allow engagement and connection between audiences that conventional forms of research and representation do not support.