AustLit

'In reverence and using rich colours 18 th century artist Joseph Wright depicts a life under pressure as experiment and entertainment in the same way that social scientists today are using life writing as offerings in research. This presentation looks at an example of this and discusses the ethical implications of using narrative over a two year period as an honest and therapeutic journey into a new understanding of self. The painting, An experiment on a bird in an air pump, depicts philosopher/scientist, bird as subject and onlookers. A vacuum is used to deprive the bird of oxygen that will eventually lead to its death.

'The writer of life narrative is story and story teller, researcher and subject. The writer must consider the ethics of using family, friends and self in the story and this writing experiment uses metaphor and symbols to both entertain and protect others. But the self cannot be protected if a therapeutic value is to be had. The writer must tell the truth. Here the end is predicted to justify the means. The metaphor of vacuum is used to describe a life that is under pressure from work in academia as an Aboriginal woman, studying part time and coming to terms with trans-generational trauma. That in being aware of the conditions of vacuum, pressure from within and without, in naming this space the bird will become cognizant of its own storied demise and that a new ending can be written. The bird can rescue itself. That in controlling your own story or mythology of self, in being both researcher and subject the outcome can be known. The storyteller also calls on her ancestral tradition of Indigenous use of story work in reverence and richness as seen in the painting of this bird.' (Abstract sourced from http://fhrc.flinders.edu.au/events/story/abstracts.htm#Wyld )