Through the use of interviews and prompted artwork, this study seeks to understand the experience of cultural identity for female Adult Transracial Adoptees (ATRAs) and Adult Third Culture Kids (ATCKs) in relation to their felt sense of cultural longing and loss.

Our study uses the following definitions from the literature: An ATRA is a person of one ethnic or racial group who, as a child, was legally placed with adoptive parents, caregivers or guardians of another ethnic or racial group. An ATCK is an adult who spent at least one year of their childhood living in a country that was different to their parents’ country of origin due to a parent’s work or training.

Research has identified that ATRAs and ATCKs appear to share a common struggle to form cultural identities as they explore their racial, ethnic, and cultural ties in childhood and adolescence. ATRAs may not have equal access to their heritage culture and their national culture and, as a result, may face challenges in developing their identity and finding a sense of belonging. Similarly, ATCKs experience a dual culture of their home and host cultures and commonly do not feel a sense of belonging to either. Their highly mobile lifestyle marked by hidden losses and separation may also contribute to challenges in establishing identity and a sense of belonging.

The intersection of the student researchers’ experiences as members of these communities and the current literature has identified the need for a research approach that captures participants’ lived experience in order to explore the potential hidden aspects of cultural identity that may be influencing the lives of both ATRAs and ATCKs. Illuminating these aspects is particularly pertinent to the field of Creative Arts Therapies, especially therapeutic services in which culture and identity are not the primary objectives, as this may potentially perpetuate the client’s experience of these dilemmas as a hidden dimension of their psychological lives.

An arts-based autoethnographic framework allows us to explore the nuances of lived experience and represent them through the chosen medium of collage. Arts-based research is a transdisciplinary approach primed to explore the complexities of life often uncovered in autoethnographic studies, which use personal experience to represent cultural experiences, shared beliefs, and values. As a participant, you do not need to have any formal art training to join this study.

This study aims to understand the felt sense of cultural identity for female ATRAs and ATCKs over the age of 18. The project is specifically interested in testing the hypothesis that lived experience emerges as a felt sense and that aspects of cultural identity, such as longing and loss, may be a shared experience for these groups. The study aims to strengthen the research base for Creative Arts Therapists working interculturally to support their practice in working with members of these communities. Specifically utilising felt sense and art-making processes as therapeutic tools might resource clients to explore otherwise hidden aspects of their own experience for therapeutic benefit.

What does your participation involve?

As a participant in this study, you will be asked to attend a 60-minute session with one of the researchers either online using Microsoft Teams (if you are located outside of Western Australia or if attending in person is not feasible) or in person at Murdoch University in Perth. All sessions are offered in English only and all sessions will be both audio and video recorded for the researcher’s use in data analysis.

On the day, there will be 15 minutes of an opening interview around the theme of your lived experience, followed by 30 minutes of collage making, and 15 minutes of a closing interview about your making process using Paolo Knill’s Aesthetic Analysis Process (AAP). Knill’s AAP looks at four areas: the surface of the work, the process of shaping, the experience of doing, and the significance of the work.

The researcher will introduce you to the art materials and prompt you in the collage activity. You are not required to have any formal art training or experience to participate. If you attend in person, the researchers will provide all art materials. If attending online, you will be provided with an additional document guiding you to prepare your space for the session including a suggested list of materials you will need to source.

At the end of the session, a digital photograph of your work will be taken and stored on a protected USB only accessed by the researchers. We will not keep your original piece and you will be able to take it home with you the same day.

Voluntary Participation and Withdrawal from the Study

It is important that you understand that your involvement in this study is voluntary. While we would be pleased to have you participate, we respect your right to decline. There will be no consequences to you if you decide not to participate. If you decide to discontinue participation, you may do so without providing an explanation. If you withdraw prior to or during the session, all information you have provided will be destroyed. However, if your data has already been de-identified or published, it will not be possible to destroy the data that you provided in the earlier stages of the research. Your data will be de-identified when the researchers transcribe the recorded sessions. Please note that anyone already known to the researchers will be excluded from the study to prevent conflict of interest.

Your Privacy

Your privacy is very important to us. Your participation in this study and any information will be treated in a confidential manner. Your name and identifying details will not be used in any publication arising out of the research. After the study is completed, the data will be kept in a de-identified manner on a protected computer drive hosted by Murdoch University for five years.

Possible Benefits

It is anticipated that you will benefit from engaging in an arts-based process of personal inquiry. This may lead to enhanced self-understanding. You may also find that you gain a sense of community and shared experience upon receiving the results of the study and through engaging with research relevant to your personal life experience. We will be interested to see if you experience any other benefits from participating in this study.

The results of this study may be valuable information for others and it may contribute to strengthening the base of research available to Creative Arts Therapists as a community of practitioners who use felt sense and arts processes to resource clients. It is hoped that this study will be able to share theory of practice in the important area of intercultural work in the clinical setting using arts-based approaches.

Possible Risks

Although unlikely, it is possible that you may experience some level of anxiety or stress during the session due to the reflective nature of the tasks. You will be monitored closely during the study and you are free to withdraw at any time during the session. If these feelings persist after the end of the session, arrangements will be made for you to access support from a relevant service in your geographic area. In order to mitigate any possible risks, you will be asked to provide your current country and state of residence so the appropriate services can be sourced for you.

If you would like to discuss any aspect of this study please feel free to contact either Natacha by emailing natacha.barghout@murdoch.edu.au or Anna by emailing anna.sasson@murdoch.edu.au. Either of us would be happy to discuss any aspect of the research with you.

If you have any reservation or complaint about the ethical conduct of this research and wish to talk to an independent person, you may contact Murdoch University’s Research Ethics & Integrity by phone (+61 8 9360 6677) or email (ethics@murdoch.edu.au).

Once we have completed our report, we will individually email the participants a summary of our findings. We will additionally post the summary on this website. You can expect to receive this feedback at the end of 2021.

We would like to thank you in advance for your assistance with this research project. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

If you are happy to participate in the study, please contact Natacha if you are an ATCK or Anna if you are an ATRA.

Thank you for your time,

Natacha Barghout | natacha.barghout@murdoch.edu.au

Anna Sasson | anna.sasson@murdoch.edu.au