Music without Borders: Bridges with Communities presentation by Sandra Kirkwood at Musicological Society of Australia conference 26-28 Sept, 2009.
The concept of Music without Borders grew out of the Doctors without Borders project that was established by a group of young French doctors in 1971. Doctors Without Borders, or Medecins Sans Frontieres, was originally a response to the growing refugee crises in formerly colonial Third World areas. The success of the program was evident when Doctors Without Borders won the nobel Peace Prize in 1999. Over the last 20-30 years, other groups have taken on the 'without borders' name and approach to community service. Since the concept of borderwork is still developing, I will try to highlight and explain some of the underlying theory and practice frameworks that apply to Music without Borders programs of Music Health Australia.
Socio-ecological approaches to health and well-being generally extend beyond the borders of disciplines and differences between people. Peoples' needs sometimes fall outside the usual borders of services delivered by government and institutions, so Music without Borders means to devise solutions that are tailor-made for individuals, communities and places. Attempts to generate situation-specific projects may well take music and health service providers outside of their normal daily work in health centres and clinics, and into the 'real world' - even outside their normal hours of work and regular responsibilities of employment. Borderless approaches imply that communities are active in helping themselves and music health, education, or cultural workers may be attracted to this kind of service that involves helping people and communities with unmet needs.
Contributions to Music without Borders may come from fields such as Indigenous knowledge perspectives, ecology, sociology, health approaches to ethnomusicology such as medical ethnomusicology, bio-musicology, applied ethnomusicology, community music, community development, music therapy, music education, ethnology, health promotion, music performance, science and music, performance health, and cultural heritage management - just to name a few. The focus is especially on first-hand personal experience and music performance in daily life, that can be used in case-based reasoning and reflective practice.
There are websites devoted to borderwork, such as Conductors without Borders, Doctors without Borders, and Sports without Borders. Nick Kronenberg and Pollard have edited a book called Occupational Therapy without Borders (2005). The concept of Musicians without Borders is still under development and interested people are invited to contribute ideas as to what this service means in relation to their own life and practice in Australia.
PRINCIPLES OF BORDERWORK
The term 'Borderwork' has been used to describe a wide range of social health and political advocacy approaches. Most of the principles seem to be related to social movements that advocate for the needs of people from disadvantaged or marginalised minority groups.
For example, certain values have been applied in relation to people with a disability, such as normalisation, the developmental approach, social role valorisation, and the least restrictive alternative principles. Each of these terms relating to social rather than bio-medical models of disability will be defined and suggestions given as to how they can be applied to music programs.
The Developmental Model promotes the idea that people are able to improve their functional ability regardless of their age or ability level (Fine, 1985). This means that people may learn music at any time in their life span, regardless of whether they meet a certain level of musical, academic or other competence. Mentors may assist people who do not have access to music tuition, as is the case for the Conductors without Borders program that is described on Wikipedia. This program engages conductors who want to assist with the training of choral conductors and the improvement of choral singing in developing countries and regions.
Social Role Valorization (SRV) is part of the overall philosophy of Normalization, which accords people who are disadvantaged or marginalised the same respect and dignity that is given to other people (Flynn & Lemay, 1999). SRV means that people have opportunities to participate in activities that are age-appropriate and valued by the community. It means portraying a positive image to the public and allows people to develop desirable social roles, rather than being restricted to menial tasks.
The Least Restrictive Alternative (LRA) principle is part of the philosophy of normalization, in that it promotes working with people in the most appropriate location in which they can directly use the skills that they are learning. As few restrictions as possible are applied so there is an emphasis on people being able to organise and alter their own environment to make it more suitable for their needs and interests. LRA can be applied to supporting people to choose and design their own musical or sonic environment.
These principles have application to local music environments in that people can have opportunities to control, direct, and participate in music activities of their choice. Music performance opportunities are available to all, and regardless of ability. Assistance is provided to adapt or contruct equipment and modify environments so they support performance and personal preferences. People may choose to collaborate with others and participate, or they may choose to come along to music events and watch what happens. Alternatively, people may decide to remain at home, or listen to recorded music.
This personalized approach of allowing people to do what they want to do and supporting individual decision making is termed client-centered practice; this approach fosters consultation and shared leadership rather than direct control by experts (Holburn & Vietze, 2002).
Another example of borderwork comes from Peterson's (2005, p. 7) description of Indigenous Life Projects "which refers to the desires of those Indigenous people who seek autonomy in deciding the meaning of their life independently of projects promoted by the state and market, and to people developing their own situation-based knowledge and practices in the contemporary world...these can involve partnerships and co-existences, where such are not denied by the encompassing society, and involve continuously emergent forms and resilience on the part of Indigenous people."
Community-based rehabilitation programs may also be closely related to borderwork through assisting communities to become involved and to address their own needs. This implies ownership of projects, consultation, and consideration of people's values and aspirations. In this way, the principles of client-centered planning are applied to communities.
REFERENCES:
Fine, A. (1985). Developmental model for the integration of leisure programming in the education of individuals with mental retardation. Mental Retardation, 23 (6), 289-296.
Flynn, R. & Lemay, R. (1999). A quarter century of normalization and social role valorization: evolution and impact. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press.
Hodge, B., & O'Carroll, J. (2006). Borderwork in multicultural Australia. Crows Nest, Australia: Allen & Unwin.
Holburn, S., & Vietze, P. (2002). Person-centered planning: Research, practice and future directions. Baltimore: Paul Brookes.
Peterson, N. (2005). What can pre-colonial, frontier economies tell us about engagement with the real economy? Indigenous life projects and the conditions for development, in D. Austin-Broos & G. MacDonald (eds), Culture, economy and governance in Aboriginal Australia, Sydney: Sydney University Press.
Shelemay, K. (1996). Crossing boundaries in music and musical scolarship: A perspective from ethnomusicology. The Musical Quarterly, 80 (1), pp. 13-30.
Walker, D., & Nocon, H. (2007). Boundary-crossing competence: Theoretical considerations and educational design. Mind, Culture and Activity, 14 (3), 178-195.
CHOOSING / DESIGNING SUITABLE MUSIC ENVIRONMENTS
Choosing or designing suitable environments for music may have an impact on people's health and well-being. There are many factors that may influence music performance and health. There have been various attempts to synthesize special environments for people with a disability, such as Lilli Nielsen's Active Learning approach for students with vision impairment. Snoezelen is an example of a multi-sensory environment that has been used in special education, therapy and aged care centres.
MULTI-SENSORY ROOMS AND SNOEZELEN
'Snoezelen' is a combination of two Dutch words that literally means "to sniff and doze." This is an unusual way of describing a sense of relaxation in a pleasant environment. People commonly call Snoezelen rooms "multi-sensory" environments because they usually have a variety of technological devices, such as lamps that project revolving images from oil slides, CDs of relaxing or stimulating music, colourful florescent toys that glow under the UV lights, great variety of tactile surfaces, large bubble lamps, fragrant oil burners, gym mats and sometimes balance equipment that rocks people back and forth. The approach may have some distant connection with technology used in discos in the 70s.
There are many U-Tube videos that show Snoezelen rooms in action. This video explains the rationale for the use of particular pieces of equipment http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=0muYVBIhWD8.
It is debatable whether synthetic multi-sensory environments are desirable within institutions. An alternate approach would be to improve access to natural environments outside of special schools and aged care centres so that students and residents can interact with people of various age groups. Institutional living can result in segregation of generations and this may limit the sharing of cultural ideas and opportunities for creative expression. It is important to critically reflect on the physical and social environments in which music programs are offered, and to consider other alternatives. It may be possible to improve access to cultural societies and community groups so they can better support people with a disability and accept people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. The diversity can enrich community life.
Article written by Sandra Kirkwood on November 12, 2008; updated December 28, 2009.
© Sandra Kirkwood, 2008
