Sarah Woodland
Biographic Data
| ID | 929366 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sarah Woodland |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sarah |
| FAMILY NAME | Woodland |
| SIGNATURE | WOODLAND S |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Melbourne |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9524-124X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Reflecting on the trajectory of applied theatre praxis with eight senior knowledge holders
This paper offers insights from a series of discussions with senior knowledge holders in applied theatre reflecting on 30 years of research and practice and forecasting future directions in the field. The paper draws on the collective knowledge of an international group of scholars whose work has shaped theory and practice to offer insights from their distinctive vantage points: Phoebe Chan, Jan Cohen-Cruz, Stig Eriksson, Patrick Mangeni, Helen N…
Stigma-Free Spaces for Healing, Empowerment, and Self-Determination
This chapter presents further findings from our study on the five health education works led by Kamarra Bell-Wykes and produced by Ilbijerri Theatre Company from 2006 to 2019. These findings draw on interviews conducted with eight practitioners who were involved over the years as performers, production staff, and advisors, a research yarn conducted between co-authors Sarah and Kamarra, and Kamarra’s own critical reflections while putting together…
The “Gripping Dramatic Yarn”
This chapter presents further findings from our study on the five health education works led by Kamarra Bell-Wykes and produced by Ilbijerri Theatre Company from 2006 to 2019. These findings draw on interviews conducted with eight practitioners who were involved over the years as performers, production staff, and advisors, a research yarn conducted between co-authors Sarah and Kamarra, and Kamarra’s own critical reflections while putting together…
Culturally Led, Culturally Safe Performance Making
This chapter presents the first of the findings from our study into the five health education works led by Kamarra Bell-Wykes and produced by Ilbijerri Theatre Company from 2006 to 2019. These findings draw on interviews conducted with eight practitioners who were involved over the years as performers, production staff, and advisors, a research yarn conducted between co-authors Sarah and Kamarra, and Kamarra’s own critical reflections while putti…
Conclusion
This chapter concludes our study of health education works produced by Australia’s Ilbijerri Theatre Company and led by Yuggera and Butchulla theatre maker Kamarra Bell-Wykes from 2006 to 2019. We draw together the findings to conclude that the works Chopped Liver , Body Armour , Viral – Are You the Cure? , North West of Nowhere , and Scar Trees represent a significant and innovative contribution to both First Nations contemporary theatre and app…
Ilbjierri Theatre Company: Health Education Works (2006–2019)
This chapter describes Ilbijerri Theatre Company’s health education theatre productions from 2006 to 2019, led by Kamarra Bell-Wykes (co-author) in her role first as writer and later dramaturg, facilitator, and director. These works sat under Ilbijerri’s Social Impact stream as separate from their mainstage productions and were funded by various state and philanthropic bodies to deliver health education and promotion around specific issues affect…
Theatre in Health and Wellbeing: A First Nations Australian Approach
The health education theatre works produced by Ilbijerri Theatre Company since 2006 represent a contemporary continuation of cultural storytelling, performance, education, and healing ceremonies that have been practised by Australian First Nations communities for millennia. While these works can be seen as standalone examples of First Nations theatre practice, they also intersect with theatre in education, theatre in health education, and theatre…
First Nations Australian Theatre for Health Equity: Healing Stories
First Nations Australian Theatre for Health Equity: Healing Stories
This open access book offers a rare insight into practices of theatre for health education in an Australian First Nations context.
Youth theatre and the climate crisis in Australia: The role of ‘unmediatised liveness’ in performing recovery, resistance, and survival
This paper presents the provocation that ‘unmediatised liveness', or experiences not filtered through digital technology, is vital to performances that promote recovery, resistance, and survival among young people in response to the climate crisis. Our provocation draws from interviews conducted with youth theatre and performance practitioners in Australia whose work addresses the climate crisis holistically across disaster preparedness, first re…
Listening to Country: Immersive Audio Production and Deep Listening with First Nations Women in Prison
Listening to Country was an arts-led research project where, as an interdisciplinary team of practitioner-researchers, we worked with incarcerated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women to produce a one-hour immersive audio work based on field recordings of natural environments. The project began with a pilot phase in Brisbane Women’s Correctional Centre (BWCC), Australia, to investigate the value of acoustic ecology in promoting wellbeing a…
Yarning Up Relations: Enacting a Relational Ethics in Cross-Cultural Research-Based Theater
This is a reflection on The Score, a Research-Based Theater (RbT) project that has just begun, and some emerging ethical entanglements surrounding the work. The Score is a collaboration between First Nations and non-Indigenous artists and researchers, produced by ILBIJERRI Theatre Company—a leading First Nations theater company based in Melbourne, Australia. The goal is to create a community-engaged, participatory model for theater in health educ…
Listening to Country: A prison pilot project that connects Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women on remand to Country
Research shows that prison programs addressing intergenerational trauma and grief, loss of culture and spiritual healing are necessary for incarcerated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Indigenous-led or culturally focused programs receive little attention and limited resourcing in Australia’s prison system compared with mainstream rehabilitation programs. Depending on the jurisdiction and prison, such programs can be even less acces…
The role of Australian First Nations’ Knowledges and the arts in “inclusive” regional and remote development: A narrative review
Prison Theatre and an Embodied Aesthetics of Liberation: Exploring the Potentials and Limits
Prison theatre practitioners and scholars often describe the sense of imaginative freedom or “escape” that theatre and drama can facilitate for incarcerated actors, in contrast to the strict regimes of the institution. Despite this, the concept of freedom or liberation is rarely interrogated, being presented instead as a given—a natural by-product of creative practice. Drawing from John Dewey’s (1934) pragmatist aesthetics and the liberatory peda…
Carcerality, theatre, rights
Threatened with ever-increasing levels of surveillance and confinement, this special issue attempts to extend the discussion of Prison Theatre to consider ‘carcerality’ as a pervasive neoliberal strategy. The issue aims to steer the discussion away from considerations of utility and the aesthetics of redemption, towards understandings of the arts in carceral spaces as a fundamental human right. What role can theatre and performance play in highli…
Performing Te Whare Tapa Whā: Building on cultural rights to decolonise prison theatre practice
Ngā Pātū Kōrero: Walls That Talk (2019) is a documentary theatre production staged by incarcerated men at Unit 8 Te Piriti at Auckland Prison in Aotearoa New Zealand. The performance was built around Te Whare Tapa Whā (The House of Four Sides) – a model of Māori health that participants engaged with as part of their therapy for being convicted of sex offences. This article discusses the use of masks in performance and the significance of Te Whare…
An ecological approach to mapping remote creative practices: Insights from an Australian Desert region
There is increasing recognition that the creative arts sector has a crucial role to play in supporting and sustaining communities in remote contexts. However, there are still major gaps in understanding how this sector functions in such settings, and few resources to support the design and delivery of arts research in these contexts. To help address these gaps, this article draws on findings from a three-year project, Creative Barkly, the first s…
Finding resonance: Applied Audio Drama, Inquiry and Fictionalising the Real
This article examines the tensions and possibilities of audio drama in applied theatre and qualitative inquiry. Drawing on our experiences of making participatory audio drama, we argue that applied audio drama provides rich ground for generating new knowledge and approaches to applied theatre research and practice as informed by the cultural turn towards listening, sound, and sonic agency. Situating the conversation within fiction rather than doc…
Desert Harmony: Exploring the Cultural, Social, and Economic Value of a Multi-Arts Festival in the Remote Barkly Region
This article examines the role that the arts sector plays in supporting and sustaining communities in one of Australia’s remotest regions, the Barkly (Northern Territory). Drawing on findings from a three-year Australian Research Council Linkage project, ‘Creative Barkly’, the article outlines how artistic and creative activities in very remote regions, such as the Barkly, constitute significant cultural, social, and economic value. To illustrate…
Finding resonance: Applied Audio Drama, Inquiry and Fictionalising the Real
This article examines the tensions and possibilities of audio drama in applied theatre and qualitative inquiry. Drawing on our experiences of making participatory audio drama, we argue that applied audio drama provides rich ground for generating new knowledge and approaches to applied theatre research and practice as informed by the cultural turn towards listening, sound, and sonic agency. Situating the conversation within fiction rather than doc…
Desert Harmony: Exploring the Cultural, Social, and Economic Value of a Multi-Arts Festival in the Remote Barkly Region
This article examines the role that the arts sector plays in supporting and sustaining communities in one of Australia’s remotest regions, the Barkly (Northern Territory). Drawing on findings from a three-year Australian Research Council Linkage project, ‘Creative Barkly’, the article outlines how artistic and creative activities in very remote regions, such as the Barkly, constitute significant cultural, social, and economic value. To illustrate…
Prison Theatre and an Embodied Aesthetics of Liberation: Exploring the Potentials and Limits
Prison theatre practitioners and scholars often describe the sense of imaginative freedom or “escape” that theatre and drama can facilitate for incarcerated actors, in contrast to the strict regimes of the institution. Despite this, the concept of freedom or liberation is rarely interrogated, being presented instead as a given—a natural by-product of creative practice. Drawing from John Dewey’s (1934) pragmatist aesthetics and the liberatory peda…
Carcerality, theatre, rights
Threatened with ever-increasing levels of surveillance and confinement, this special issue attempts to extend the discussion of Prison Theatre to consider ‘carcerality’ as a pervasive neoliberal strategy. The issue aims to steer the discussion away from considerations of utility and the aesthetics of redemption, towards understandings of the arts in carceral spaces as a fundamental human right. What role can theatre and performance play in highli…
Performing Te Whare Tapa Whā: Building on cultural rights to decolonise prison theatre practice
Ngā Pātū Kōrero: Walls That Talk (2019) is a documentary theatre production staged by incarcerated men at Unit 8 Te Piriti at Auckland Prison in Aotearoa New Zealand. The performance was built around Te Whare Tapa Whā (The House of Four Sides) – a model of Māori health that participants engaged with as part of their therapy for being convicted of sex offences. This article discusses the use of masks in performance and the significance of Te Whare…
An ecological approach to mapping remote creative practices: Insights from an Australian Desert region
There is increasing recognition that the creative arts sector has a crucial role to play in supporting and sustaining communities in remote contexts. However, there are still major gaps in understanding how this sector functions in such settings, and few resources to support the design and delivery of arts research in these contexts. To help address these gaps, this article draws on findings from a three-year project, Creative Barkly, the first s…
Finding resonance: Applied Audio Drama, Inquiry and Fictionalising the Real
This article examines the tensions and possibilities of audio drama in applied theatre and qualitative inquiry. Drawing on our experiences of making participatory audio drama, we argue that applied audio drama provides rich ground for generating new knowledge and approaches to applied theatre research and practice as informed by the cultural turn towards listening, sound, and sonic agency. Situating the conversation within fiction rather than doc…
Listening to Country: Immersive Audio Production and Deep Listening with First Nations Women in Prison
Listening to Country was an arts-led research project where, as an interdisciplinary team of practitioner-researchers, we worked with incarcerated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women to produce a one-hour immersive audio work based on field recordings of natural environments. The project began with a pilot phase in Brisbane Women’s Correctional Centre (BWCC), Australia, to investigate the value of acoustic ecology in promoting wellbeing a…
Yarning Up Relations: Enacting a Relational Ethics in Cross-Cultural Research-Based Theater
This is a reflection on The Score, a Research-Based Theater (RbT) project that has just begun, and some emerging ethical entanglements surrounding the work. The Score is a collaboration between First Nations and non-Indigenous artists and researchers, produced by ILBIJERRI Theatre Company—a leading First Nations theater company based in Melbourne, Australia. The goal is to create a community-engaged, participatory model for theater in health educ…
Listening to Country: A prison pilot project that connects Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women on remand to Country
Research shows that prison programs addressing intergenerational trauma and grief, loss of culture and spiritual healing are necessary for incarcerated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Indigenous-led or culturally focused programs receive little attention and limited resourcing in Australia’s prison system compared with mainstream rehabilitation programs. Depending on the jurisdiction and prison, such programs can be even less acces…
The role of Australian First Nations’ Knowledges and the arts in “inclusive” regional and remote development: A narrative review
Stigma-Free Spaces for Healing, Empowerment, and Self-Determination
This chapter presents further findings from our study on the five health education works led by Kamarra Bell-Wykes and produced by Ilbijerri Theatre Company from 2006 to 2019. These findings draw on interviews conducted with eight practitioners who were involved over the years as performers, production staff, and advisors, a research yarn conducted between co-authors Sarah and Kamarra, and Kamarra’s own critical reflections while putting together…
The “Gripping Dramatic Yarn”
This chapter presents further findings from our study on the five health education works led by Kamarra Bell-Wykes and produced by Ilbijerri Theatre Company from 2006 to 2019. These findings draw on interviews conducted with eight practitioners who were involved over the years as performers, production staff, and advisors, a research yarn conducted between co-authors Sarah and Kamarra, and Kamarra’s own critical reflections while putting together…
Culturally Led, Culturally Safe Performance Making
This chapter presents the first of the findings from our study into the five health education works led by Kamarra Bell-Wykes and produced by Ilbijerri Theatre Company from 2006 to 2019. These findings draw on interviews conducted with eight practitioners who were involved over the years as performers, production staff, and advisors, a research yarn conducted between co-authors Sarah and Kamarra, and Kamarra’s own critical reflections while putti…
Conclusion
This chapter concludes our study of health education works produced by Australia’s Ilbijerri Theatre Company and led by Yuggera and Butchulla theatre maker Kamarra Bell-Wykes from 2006 to 2019. We draw together the findings to conclude that the works Chopped Liver , Body Armour , Viral – Are You the Cure? , North West of Nowhere , and Scar Trees represent a significant and innovative contribution to both First Nations contemporary theatre and app…
Ilbjierri Theatre Company: Health Education Works (2006–2019)
This chapter describes Ilbijerri Theatre Company’s health education theatre productions from 2006 to 2019, led by Kamarra Bell-Wykes (co-author) in her role first as writer and later dramaturg, facilitator, and director. These works sat under Ilbijerri’s Social Impact stream as separate from their mainstage productions and were funded by various state and philanthropic bodies to deliver health education and promotion around specific issues affect…
Theatre in Health and Wellbeing: A First Nations Australian Approach
The health education theatre works produced by Ilbijerri Theatre Company since 2006 represent a contemporary continuation of cultural storytelling, performance, education, and healing ceremonies that have been practised by Australian First Nations communities for millennia. While these works can be seen as standalone examples of First Nations theatre practice, they also intersect with theatre in education, theatre in health education, and theatre…
First Nations Australian Theatre for Health Equity: Healing Stories
First Nations Australian Theatre for Health Equity: Healing Stories
This open access book offers a rare insight into practices of theatre for health education in an Australian First Nations context.
Youth theatre and the climate crisis in Australia: The role of ‘unmediatised liveness’ in performing recovery, resistance, and survival
This paper presents the provocation that ‘unmediatised liveness', or experiences not filtered through digital technology, is vital to performances that promote recovery, resistance, and survival among young people in response to the climate crisis. Our provocation draws from interviews conducted with youth theatre and performance practitioners in Australia whose work addresses the climate crisis holistically across disaster preparedness, first re…
Reflecting on the trajectory of applied theatre praxis with eight senior knowledge holders
This paper offers insights from a series of discussions with senior knowledge holders in applied theatre reflecting on 30 years of research and practice and forecasting future directions in the field. The paper draws on the collective knowledge of an international group of scholars whose work has shaped theory and practice to offer insights from their distinctive vantage points: Phoebe Chan, Jan Cohen-Cruz, Stig Eriksson, Patrick Mangeni, Helen N…
Sociology (10 works) · Political science (9 works) · Art Therapy and Mental Health (7 works) · Theatre and Performance Studies (6 works) · Art (5 works) · Criminology (5 works) · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Prison (5 works) · Psychology (5 works)