'I do dots ...' : art therapy with an Australian Aboriginal preschool child

Kara was a three-and-a-half-year-old Aboriginal girl who lived in inner-city Sydney. SShe attended a preschool situated in the midst of a Department of Housing complex, in which approximately 50 per cent of the children were Aboriginal. She was selected by the teachers to be part of a short-term art therapy project because of the instability and chaos in her home situation. The art therapist came to the preschool for weekly sessions that were held in a converted storeroom at the back of the preschool. Sessions were taped and transcribed and form the clinical material quoted in this chapter. The art therapy project was part of a research pilot study conducted by Gunawirra, a charity working with Aboriginal families in inner-city Sydney and rural New South Wales. Due to the nature of the wider research project, the therapists did not have any knowledge of the family history of the children involved.