Arts-based research uses creative processes and tools to bring out information and understandings around social issues. The processes provide a contextual and nuanced understanding of situations. Within our creative activities, we explore the relational and structural complexities that people might be experiencing in their communities.
At the same time, arts-based approaches allow us to create materials and outputs that can be used for advocacy work as they capture stories shared by people. By harnessing creative processes we can create a safe space to share stories and co-create ethical representations around the issue of sorcery accusations and related violence.
The process of taking and sharing photographs, for example, encourages individuals to capture the solutions they have developed to address social issues within their communities. Their personal stories show how they have dealt with the challenges they have faced. The process of taking photographs and creating their own narratives has also encouraged each of the individuals and the organisations to use the media to support their campaigns in their communities. The stories represent arts-based research outputs that capture the various complexities within communities and the positive solutions people have developed.
