Yarning Up Relations: Enacting a Relational Ethics in Cross-Cultural Research-Based Theater

Abstract

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 education that addresses sexual health for First Nations young people, to be delivered in schools, prisons, community centers and community health settings. Drawing on Indigenous and applied theater research methods, our article situates the discussion of ethics in RbT within the concept of relationality. Through a process of yarning (discussion), we explore the complexity of relations within the project and how relationality infuses all aspects of the project design. We argue that this approach is essential in ensuring respectful, accountable, and decolonial theater-research praxis.