Ethical Contemporary Art Therapy: Honoring an American Indian Perspective

Abstract

As a profession that formed in relation to larger forces within science, psychology, and more, the field of art therapy is not immune to the systems of oppression woven throughout Western culture and has incorporated practices that, even unwittingly, perpetuate the oppression of American Indian peoples today. This article contextualizes the U.S. art therapy field within the larger legacy of historical, systematic efforts to eradicate Native sovereignty in the United States, questions the subordinate position of Indigenous peoples, and critically examines and deconstructs the continued oppression of American Indian peoples today through situated and subjugated knowledge, cultural appropriation, cultural genocide, and colonial amnesia.