Stitching East and West

Abstract

In this collection of creative vignettes, two immigrants – one Chinese and one African – explore difficult experiences caused by migration. The tale began several years previous to this when Ingrid Wang, an arts therapy student, grappled to express how moving from China to New Zealand has silenced her sense of self. Deborah Green, then a lecturer in the early stage of her academic career, witnessed Ingrid’s struggles and responded by drawing on her own experience of emigrating from South Africa to New Zealand. This story then moves to the present as both Ingrid and Deborah reconnect when Deborah begins supervising Ingrid’s Master’s research project and the core motif of stitching is woven throughout this arts-based conversation. Using Skype, telephone, email and snail-mail, they stitch together the geographical distances between the two cities in which they live – Ingrid in Auckland on the North Island and Deborah in Christchurch on the South Island. Through art-making and creative writing, they stitch together the metaphorical distances that manifest themselves in various ways through migration, language and cultural differences.

Keywords

• cultural connection
• arts-based research
• metaphorical distances
• migration
• language