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Working in the Fields
We used a variety of methods with the decolonial participatory action framework to explore how the collective understood and engaged with precarity and coloniality.
If you would like to use any of these methods in your own research projects, do contact the Principal Investigator for a copy of EXCAPE URMI’s research manual.
Scroll down to learn more about what the collective shared with us.
Precarity Pallaangkuzhi was a game designed by the research team to conceptualise precarity using localised and cultural experiences. Collective members played a modified form of the traditional Tamil game, pallaangkuzhi, in which the marbles represented individuals’ resources, such as money, talents, time and networks, while the holes symbolise obstacles and opportunities. This encouraged the collective to reflect upon precarity and adaptability in their own lives.
Photovoice was used as both method and medium, in which the collective took photographs and described how they relate to a given topic, allowing women to document their lives through their own images and build narratives in their own words. This participatory approach shifts authority away from researchers and foregrounds lived experience, making visible the everyday struggles often hidden from public view.
Story-telling was utilised throughout engagements as a mode of visualising their futures as well as reflecting on the lived realities of their ancestors. In this, story-telling had the capacity to counteract coloniality and its impact on the preservation and continuity of family histories, ancestral strength and wisdom among the research collective.
Tea-drinking drew upon the history of Indian and Sri Lankan labourers brought by the British to work on tea plantations in Cameron Highlands, facing poor living conditions while laying the foundations for Malaysia’s tea industry today. Through smelling and tasting different teas, the collective reflected upon links to the legacies of this everyday object.
Drawing on Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed, the collective staged short plays which reflected various experiences of gender inequality in their roles as mothers, wives, daughters and workers. This activity invited the collective to participate in analysing their lived realities and theorising gender equality.
A Textile Review activity drew on the history of the British control over India’s cotton industry, affecting workers in Malaya where Indian textile traditions adapted and thrived despite colonial exploitation. While touching and examining various fabrics including sarees, batik and block prints, the collective was encouraged to reflect on colonial history and influence on these everyday items.
Collage-making was used as a creative method to surface collective memory and personal narratives about precarity. By cutting, layering, and arranging images, participants gave form to experiences that were often difficult to put into words. The process mirrored the fragmented and pieced-together realities of Malaysian Indian women in the B40: navigating multiple roles, holding on to fragments of hope, and reconstructing meaning from limited resources.
An identity mapping activity was formulated to encourage critical reflection on positionality.
Collective members mapped their personal and social identities along various axes, and were then encouraged to reflect upon their own performances of subjectivity and identity.
Collective members mapped their personal and social identities along various axes, and were then encouraged to reflect upon their own performances of subjectivity and identity.
Ayvu Athicudi is a series of axioms, emulating the collection of single-line quotations by Tamil poetess, Avvaiyaar, that convey decolonial research ethics. Informed consent and a thorough understanding of ethical research guidelines are essential for a Critical Participatory Action Research whereby the collective plays an active role in the process of constructing knowledge. This use of existing traditional knowledge made research ethics more accessible to the collective. The two-word structure of each axiom also aided the collective in recalling the research ethics during every engagement, in spite of the long intervals between workshops.
Precarity Pallaangkuzhi was a game designed by the research team to conceptualise precarity using localised and cultural experiences. Collective members played a modified form of the traditional Tamil game, pallaangkuzhi, in which the marbles represented individuals’ resources, such as money, talents, time and networks, while the holes symbolise obstacles and opportunities. This encouraged the collective to reflect upon precarity and adaptability in their own lives.
Photovoice was used as both method and medium, in which the collective took photographs and described how they relate to a given topic, allowing women to document their lives through their own images and build narratives in their own words. This participatory approach shifts authority away from researchers and foregrounds lived experience, making visible the everyday struggles often hidden from public view.
Story-telling was utilised throughout engagements as a mode of visualising their futures as well as reflecting on the lived realities of their ancestors. In this, story-telling had the capacity to counteract coloniality and its impact on the preservation and continuity of family histories, ancestral strength and wisdom among the research collective.
Tea-drinking drew upon the history of Indian and Sri Lankan labourers brought by the British to work on tea plantations in Cameron Highlands, facing poor living conditions while laying the foundations for Malaysia’s tea industry today. Through smelling and tasting different teas, the collective reflected upon links to the legacies of this everyday object.
Drawing on Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed, the collective staged short plays which reflected various experiences of gender inequality in their roles as mothers, wives, daughters and workers. This activity invited the collective to participate in analysing their lived realities and theorising gender equality.
A Textile Review activity drew on the history of the British control over India’s cotton industry, affecting workers in Malaya where Indian textile traditions adapted and thrived despite colonial exploitation. While touching and examining various fabrics including sarees, batik and block prints, the collective was encouraged to reflect on colonial history and influence on these everyday items.
Collage-making was used as a creative method to surface collective memory and personal narratives about precarity. By cutting, layering, and arranging images, participants gave form to experiences that were often difficult to put into words. The process mirrored the fragmented and pieced-together realities of Malaysian Indian women in the B40: navigating multiple roles, holding on to fragments of hope, and reconstructing meaning from limited resources.
An identity mapping activity was formulated to encourage critical reflection on positionality.
Collective members mapped their personal and social identities along various axes, and were then encouraged to reflect upon their own performances of subjectivity and identity.
Collective members mapped their personal and social identities along various axes, and were then encouraged to reflect upon their own performances of subjectivity and identity.
Ayvu Athicudi is a series of axioms, emulating the collection of single-line quotations by Tamil poetess, Avvaiyaar, that convey decolonial research ethics. Informed consent and a thorough understanding of ethical research guidelines are essential for a Critical Participatory Action Research whereby the collective plays an active role in the process of constructing knowledge. This use of existing traditional knowledge made research ethics more accessible to the collective. The two-word structure of each axiom also aided the collective in recalling the research ethics during every engagement, in spite of the long intervals between workshops.