59-05-032 Proceeding

322 Proceedings of the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Congress of health care and educationwith progressive policies on environmental sustainability. According to Aun Long and Tan (2012), its multi-cultural and cosmopolitan diversity have contributed to its global success in a contemporary world. In addition to the rich Malay heritage, the Chinese and Indian cultures, steeped in tradition, customand rituals, have also influenced andmade significant arts related impacts on the city-state itself. The Development of the Profession of Arts Therapy The profession of arts therapy has emerged relatively recently in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, compared to other continents such as Europe and North America. Researchers in the field have demonstrated the development of the profession in Australia and New Zealand (Westwood, 2012; Westwood & Linnell, 2011; Woodcock, 2011). They observe that early practitioners and educators were trained in the United Kingdom (UK), Europe, the United States of America (US) and Canada and, historically, the profession has tended to look to these countries for their theoretical base and therapeutic practices. Essame comments that the melding of Eastern and Western values balance each other in Singaporean arts therapy (2012, p. 94). For arts therapists living in and practicing in this region, it can be argued that the profession is based on an ancient and universal knowing shared by all indigenous cultures, that the arts and creativity are inseparable from our health and well-being. In all ancient societies, the arts were seen to be integral to the expression and healing of individuals and the community, and were fundamental to daily life as well as to the creation of ceremony and ritual (A. Halprin, 2000; D. Halprin, 2003; Kaplan, 2005; Payne, 1992). American arts therapist, Shaun McNiff (2004) notes that the experiential elements of traditional healing engage the body, mind and spirit and that ceremony, ritual and art are all essential to the process. According to Kim (2012) arts therapy therefore creates a powerful bridge between Western and non-Western models of well-being. Kalmanowitz, Potash andChan (2012, p. 29) claimthat although colonisation inAsia caused a “degree of devaluing” of traditional models and practices of health and ritual, “...the ancient use of the arts in healing were not altogether lost”. This is paralleled in the cultures of indigenous Australians, Maori and Pacific people (Agee, McIntosh, Culbertson, & Makasiale, 2013; Durie, 2003; Gilroy &Hanna, 1998; Linnell, 2009; Turner, 2006; Webber, 2013). Recently, arts therapists inAustralia andNewZealand are increasingly looking to their indigenous cultures and beyond for alternative models of health and well-being. Kalmanowitz, Potash and Chan (2012) have readily identified the enormous influence of Asian ideas on the West with the explosion of interest in mindfulness and meditation, as well as physical practices such as yoga and tai chi. Establishing stronger links with Asia and the Pacific where our indigenous populations journeyed from, represents a necessary and important connectedness and perhaps a re-connectedness between traditional wisdom and contemporary thought and understanding.