Conversaciones con mi sangre – Conversations with my blood: How intergenerational knowledge shapes conceptions of art practice and teaching

Abstract

This auto-ethnographical study focused on the importance of family being at the centre of my ‘conversaciones con mi sangre – conversations with my blood.’ My aim was to explore through conversations with my immediate family, in particular my father José Maria Parra y Bribiesca, how intergenerational knowledge about art and art making has been, and continues to be, transmitted by my Mexican / English / Irish ancestors. I wanted to understand more deeply, and critically reflect on how art is created, what meanings art works carry, and how those meanings are taught and learned within familial intergenerational situations. The design of this study was informed by a qualitative interpretative paradigm. It was underpinned by literature on the theoretical and methodological framework of auto-ethnography, a form of self-reflection that explores a researcher’s personal experiences and connects their autobiographical story to wider cultural, political and social meanings. Although my family and cultural heritage were the main foci, it was important to explore how others pass on knowledge. I perceived that approaches to indigenous research methodology, and the passing on of knowledge by Mexica (indigenous Mexican people) and Māori in Aotearoa-New Zealand, intersected with auto-ethnography and was a means to empower not only myself but other indigenous peoples. As a researcher, also with English / Irish ancestry, I was also interested in how non-indigenous people pass on intergenerational knowledge. The research design challenged my ability to unite and integrate the roles of artist, teacher and participant-researcher through the theoretical and methodological perspectives of a/r/tography, which focuses on the concept of ‘living enquiry’ via the ‘self’ and others to explore issues. From the perspective of being an artist, I examined what types of intergenerational knowledge have informed my conceptions and practices of art making. From the perspective of being an art teacher, I explored how intergenerational knowledge could be transmitted through my pedagogical practices in art to support students, including indigenous students, in a secondary school context. From the perspective of being a participant-researcher, I seized the opportunity to become more informed about myself as an artist, teacher, researcher, and person as opposed to someone who reports findings about others. The findings are presented through the conversaciones with my family. They are illustrated through documented sources and the lens of personal ephemera gathered – the ‘true little incidents’ between me, art, my parents and my children - that serve not as bricolage but as emblems, signs and appeals. Most importantly, they are expressed through the enactment of the collaborative art making conversaciones with my father, José Maria Parra y Bribiesca.