title: Metonymic objects, cultural practices and narrative repair: Sri Lankan responses to the Indian Ocean tsunami

authors: Cassim, Shemana

subjects: cultural practice

abstract: The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami resulted in a tragic loss of life and immense suffering. This article explores the ways in which a group of people from Sri Lanka worked to address the disruption to their life narratives caused by the loss of loved ones. We go beyond a focus on ‘talk’ in narrative research in health psychology to explore the importance of material objects in sustaining continued bonds with the deceased. This article provides an alternative to the tendency in mainstream psychology to pathologise grief and highlights the importance of culturally patterned responses to disaster.

text: Metonymic objects, cultural practices and narrative repair: Sri Lankan responses to the Indian Ocean tsunami The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami resulted in a tragic loss of life and immense suffering. This article explores the ways in which a group of people from Sri Lanka worked to address the disruption to their life narratives caused by the loss of loved ones. We go beyond a focus on ‘talk’ in narrative research in health psychology to explore the importance of material objects in sustaining continued bonds with the deceased. This article provides an alternative to the tendency in mainstream psychology to pathologise grief and highlights the importance of culturally patterned responses to disaster.

year: 2015

title: Proceedings of the First New Zealand Formal Program Development Colloquium

authors: Reeves, Steve

subjects: Bird-Meertens Formalism

abstract: This volume gathers together papers presented at the first in what is planned to be a series of annual meetings which aim to bring together people within New Zealand who have an interest in the use of formal ideas to enhance program development. Throughout the World work is going on under the headings of "formal methods", "programming foundations", "formal software engineering". All these names are meant to suggest the use of soundly-based, broadly mathematical ideas for improving the current methods used to develop software. There is every reason for New Zealand to be engaged in this sort of research and, of growing importance, its application. Formal methods have had a large, and growing, influence on the software industry in Europe, and lately in the U.S.A. it is being seen as important. An article in September's "Scientific American" (leading with the Denver Airport debacle) gives an excellent overview of the way in which these ideas are seen as necessary for the future of the industry. Nearer to home and more immediate are current speculations about problems with the software running New Zealand's telephone system. The papers in this collection give some idea of the sorts of areas which people are working on in the expectation that other people will be encouraged to start work or continue current work in this area. We also want the fact that this works is going on to be made known to the New Zealand computer science community at large.

text: Proceedings of the First New Zealand Formal Program Development Colloquium This volume gathers together papers presented at the first in what is planned to be a series of annual meetings which aim to bring together people within New Zealand who have an interest in the use of formal ideas to enhance program development. Throughout the World work is going on under the headings of "formal methods", "programming foundations", "formal software engineering". All these names are meant to suggest the use of soundly-based, broadly mathematical ideas for improving the current methods used to develop software. There is every reason for New Zealand to be engaged in this sort of research and, of growing importance, its application. Formal methods have had a large, and growing, influence on the software industry in Europe, and lately in the U.S.A. it is being seen as important. An article in September's "Scientific American" (leading with the Denver Airport debacle) gives an excellent overview of the way in which these ideas are seen as necessary for the future of the industry. Nearer to home and more immediate are current speculations about problems with the software running New Zealand's telephone system. The papers in this collection give some idea of the sorts of areas which people are working on in the expectation that other people will be encouraged to start work or continue current work in this area. We also want the fact that this works is going on to be made known to the New Zealand computer science community at large.

year: 1994-11

title: Exploring female art-making through reflective practice: A multi-dimensional cultural, spiritual and embodied experience

authors: Bright, Deborah Ann

subjects: female

abstract: This thesis explores some of the many elements and influences of lived experience that are present in acts of art-making. Reflective practice in art-making adds the intentional and purposive act of reflective learning to the experience of art-making. In an academic context the challenge arises for a researcher to adequately represent the breadth and richness of the lived experiences of reflective practice in artmaking. This breadth and richness may embrace elements of art production and influences including gender, culture, spirituality, creativity, creative processes, embodied knowing, the place of conversations and learning as a result of facilitated reflective practice. Adequate representation is particularly vital because art-makers may communicate best through non-verbal means, including embodied knowing and their artmaking, rather than through words. Flexibility of approach and representation is even more important when the art-maker participants engage in various art-making areas and identify themselves as part of indigenous, dominant and/or non-dominant cultures within Aotearoa New Zealand. In this thesis, by applying a feminist participatory approach, informed by kaupapa Maori, I affirmed that the lived experiences of reflective practice in art-making can be adequately represented in a thesis. By such means, I sought to empower the participants, including myself, by providing a process through which they might increase confidence in their own art-making practices and professional artistry. This approach was necessary because no single or even double blending of worldviews can embrace such a range of variables. However, an interweaving of feminist and participatory, informed by indigenous peoples’ worldviews, provides the scope for such a study in terms of fundamental beliefs, ways of knowing, values, issues of power, methodologies and methods. The ways of knowing include collaborative, constructed, cultural, embodied, experiential, indigenous, presentational, propositional, spiritual and subjective and writing as a way of knowing; such a range was vital to this thesis. As artmaker co-participant, I was able to engage in conversation with the other art-makers as facilitator of their reflective practice in art-making and to represent their lived experiences of reflective practice in art-making through verbal and non-verbal means and art-making, in ways that were comfortable culturally to all participants. ii I represent and discuss my findings through formal academic writing, personal narrative and a DVD. The DVD includes a video montage and an image narrative that contribute to the discussion on embodied knowing (Chapter 7), a video of my own dance work, which contributes to the discussion on creativity and visual images (Chapter 6), and a copy of a poster referred to at various times in the findings and discussion chapters. Finally, I conclude that a feminist participatory approach, informed by indigenous peoples’ worldviews and including facilitated reflective practice, may have application to other fields of research and practice including other areas of the arts, teaching, sport and leisure and in the wider field of social sciences.

text: Exploring female art-making through reflective practice: A multi-dimensional cultural, spiritual and embodied experience This thesis explores some of the many elements and influences of lived experience that are present in acts of art-making. Reflective practice in art-making adds the intentional and purposive act of reflective learning to the experience of art-making. In an academic context the challenge arises for a researcher to adequately represent the breadth and richness of the lived experiences of reflective practice in artmaking. This breadth and richness may embrace elements of art production and influences including gender, culture, spirituality, creativity, creative processes, embodied knowing, the place of conversations and learning as a result of facilitated reflective practice. Adequate representation is particularly vital because art-makers may communicate best through non-verbal means, including embodied knowing and their artmaking, rather than through words. Flexibility of approach and representation is even more important when the art-maker participants engage in various art-making areas and identify themselves as part of indigenous, dominant and/or non-dominant cultures within Aotearoa New Zealand. In this thesis, by applying a feminist participatory approach, informed by kaupapa Maori, I affirmed that the lived experiences of reflective practice in art-making can be adequately represented in a thesis. By such means, I sought to empower the participants, including myself, by providing a process through which they might increase confidence in their own art-making practices and professional artistry. This approach was necessary because no single or even double blending of worldviews can embrace such a range of variables. However, an interweaving of feminist and participatory, informed by indigenous peoples’ worldviews, provides the scope for such a study in terms of fundamental beliefs, ways of knowing, values, issues of power, methodologies and methods. The ways of knowing include collaborative, constructed, cultural, embodied, experiential, indigenous, presentational, propositional, spiritual and subjective and writing as a way of knowing; such a range was vital to this thesis. As artmaker co-participant, I was able to engage in conversation with the other art-makers as facilitator of their reflective practice in art-making and to represent their lived experiences of reflective practice in art-making through verbal and non-verbal means and art-making, in ways that were comfortable culturally to all participants. ii I represent and discuss my findings through formal academic writing, personal narrative and a DVD. The DVD includes a video montage and an image narrative that contribute to the discussion on embodied knowing (Chapter 7), a video of my own dance work, which contributes to the discussion on creativity and visual images (Chapter 6), and a copy of a poster referred to at various times in the findings and discussion chapters. Finally, I conclude that a feminist participatory approach, informed by indigenous peoples’ worldviews and including facilitated reflective practice, may have application to other fields of research and practice including other areas of the arts, teaching, sport and leisure and in the wider field of social sciences.

year: 2010