Re-Envisioning Art Therapy in Canada
Kate Moo King-Curtis, HBA, MA, Art Therapy student (TATI)
Greater Toronto Area, ON
Rooted Storytellers is an ongoing column by Envisage contributor Kate Moo King-Curtis, dedicated to unearthing and amplifying diverse voices and knowledge keepers in the creative arts therapies, primarily in Canada. It seeks the inclusivity of histories that have shaped art therapy to reflect and represent diversity in the field.
Kate is a Toronto Art Therapy Institute (TATI) student with extensive experience in the arts and film. She completed an MA in Humanities and an HBA in Childhood Studies (York University). As a multiracial/multistoried woman, emerging practitioner-researcher, and arts facilitator, Kate’s interests are grounded in underserved youth’s mental health and their communities through an anti-oppressive lens.
Rapinder Kaur, Lucille Cosca, and Patricia Ki
In a country shaped by rich and diverse histories, peoples, and voices that have influenced creative arts therapies, Rooted Storytellers intends to facilitate the sharing and accessibility of some of these undiscovered truthtellers. The idea sprouted from a need to ‘fill in the blanks’ with knowledge and lived experiences from practitioners about untold historical, social, political, and institutional injustices.
To ignite this initiative, I have invited a group of inspiring practitioners, two art therapists and a fellow art therapy student to answer the following question: What do you envision for art therapy in Canada?
I hope you find their responses as insightful and energizing as I do!
Rapinder Kaur, RP
Greater Toronto Area, ON
Rapinder Kaur is a renowned Sikh Canadian Art Therapist and founder of Art as Therapy, a community-based private practice in three locations in southern Ontario. The practice is nourished by a team of creative arts therapists whose work is grounded in empowerment, reciprocity, community connectedness, social justice, and belonging.
I envision art therapy in Canada as a guiding light for the world, where we all, as art therapists, acknowledge the profound significance of our role. I hope we practice with a deep reverence for the work, ourselves, and the communities we serve. We practice with this depth and richness because we have fought hard to challenge, dismantle, and reconstruct traditional views of therapy. We have a profound impact because, both individually and collectively, we are engaged in more genuine practice. We understand the far-reaching effects of trusting in our expertise and in art as a path toward liberation. We are at a crucial juncture in human history—a time when the world desperately needs our brushes and paints. What's required now is a moral imagination, and the liminal emerging space provided by art therapy is ideal for developing and nurturing this. We must resist polarization, fear, misinformation, and mistrust by forging connections that foster reciprocity, belonging, safety, secure relationships, joy, love, and Chardi Kala (rising spirit). We must believe in our collective ability to care for each other and our natural world. We must see ourselves as sovereign and recognize the sovereignty in others, working together in solidarity, as one, so find pathways back to ourselves and one another.
Skógafoss waterfall, Skógar, Iceland, digital photograph, 2022
Here is a photo I took in Iceland in 2022 of Skógafoss waterfall, part of ancient coastal cliffs formed by marine erosion at the end of the last ice age. It reminds me that I am part of something larger than myself, something that has been around for centuries before and will be present centuries after I am gone. I am, as we all are, an intrinsic part of the natural world, and my worthiness and place in this world are inherent.
Lucille Cosca, HBSc, RSSW, Art Therapy student (TATI)
Halton Region, ON
Lucille is a self-taught artist, an aspiring art therapist studying at the Toronto Art Therapy Institute (TATI), and a Registered Social Service Worker with experience working in children’s mental health, hoping to create a colourful path of healing and compassion.
When I envision art therapy and its future in Canada, I see a greater effort being made to make it more inclusive and accessible. I see individuals from all walks of life having equitable access to art therapy services. I see these services and programs being able to cater to diverse communities and needs. I see us creating more spaces to promote and amplify the voices of diverse and racialized art therapists. These voices are crucial for engaging, understanding, and developing trusting and meaningful therapeutic relationships within various communities. I see art therapy as being recognized for its benefits and values in supporting individuals on their therapeutic journeys. I see the misconception that only “good artists” can benefit from dismantling art therapy while embracing the willingness to engage in the process of self-expression and exploration. I see a future where we’ve paved the way for art therapy to have a more inclusive, diverse, and accessible landscape for all.
Patricia Hoi Ling Ki, PhD, RCAT, RSW
Tkaronto (Treaty 13) on Turtle Island
Immigrant-settler, sisterly villager of Chinese/Hakka descent living in Tkaronto. Arts-maker, writer, educator, forever a co-learner, currently serving the community at Toronto Art Therapy Institute as director. Psychiatric survivor, social worker, PhD in Critical Disability Studies.
River of Stars
“For the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.”
– Audre Lorde (1984)
“And who will join this standing up
and the ones who stood without sweet company
will sing and sing
back into the mountains and
if necessary
even under the sea
we are the ones we have been waiting for.”
– June Jordan (1980)
Envisioning
the future
is unforgetting
the struggles of the past in the
shapes of violence in
our present, for the future
we want, the future
we dream of, the future of decolonial
freedom is located not
only in the distance, it is
always
in the making, your hands my hands our
hands sharing history of
stars in the shapes of memories
of the past in the present for the
future, I want this world
to break our hearts
break into millions
of pieces, break
into infinite, into
infinity, like grains of sand like
the stardust of our homes of our
bodies of our belonging, gathering
mass and strengths
beneath the
waves, the waves
turning tides moving
land back
land back
I want us to break
the moulds the prisons the chains trying
always to convince us
our hearts cannot break
free
from domination from
catastrophes from dehumanization
from complacency from complicity in
settler-colonial-capitalism built on slow-death-for-some
as inevitable
I want us to
break
down the master’s house and build
otherwise make beyond create contrary
craft refusals every day sculpt
true freedom stitch belonging
for all, true for all whose lifeworlds stolen
or for no one, real for all subjugated to the margins
or for no one, for we
are
the river of stars, are
the waves, are
the tides, are the ones
we have been
waiting for. We are
the house, the now, the future
we build
with our
broken
hearts
References
Lorde, A. (1984). The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House. https://collectiveliberation.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Lorde_The_Masters_Tools.pdf
Poem for South African Women. (n.d.). June Jordan. https://www.junejordan.net/poem-for-south-african-women.html