Leisure and trauma-informed practice

Abstract

ABSTRACT Leisure has the potential to contribute to processes of colonization and decolonization. In this paper, we propose using trauma-informed practice as part of a decolonizing process in leisure service provision. While trauma-informed practice continues to have it critiques and limitations from a decolonizing perspective, its recognition of the widespread impact of trauma, the role colonization plays in this trauma, and the value it places on safety, trust, empowerment, collaboration, and practitioner humility and responsiveness may provide leisure professional guidance in decolonizing their practice. This paper presents a project involving Indigenous women, which incorporated aspects of TIP into the facilitation of an arts-based leisure workshop. Using poetic-representation—a method purposefully used to evoke and awaken emotions, the paper highlights experiences of challenge, discovery and release, and collective responsibility. Implications emphasize engaging in a conscious and deliberate process that incorporates arts-based leisure, aims to address colonization (e.g., trauma and oppressive systemic structures), and works towards social justice.