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Papers by Elizabeth E Slottje

Journal of economic and social policy, 2015

The community choir attracts interest in Western societies which are increasingly becoming places... more The community choir attracts interest in Western societies which are increasingly becoming places of constraint and economic demand. Community singing bonds people together. It can meet a vital human need of social participation in societies which have become places of stress and alienation and offers musical engagement within a social dynamic. This paper discusses how singing draws people together and can act as an agent which builds community. Research into the effect of singing shows how it can stimulate physical and emotional health. Group singing can alleviate social isolation delivering psycho-physiological benefits. Learning new musical skills occurs in groups where fun and play are key elements. This paper discusses a research project which investigates why people choose to join community choirs and why they sing. It looks at how individual psycho-physiological experience is placed within a social group structured as a learning environment. Through a comprehensive questionnaire administered to community choir members and directors, the project found that the personal aspect shows that belonging to a community choir can be an empowering practice with non-specific spiritual analogies of release. It found that socially, interpersonal dynamics affect learning and educational benefits are intimately bound with the personal and social features of this burgeoning cultural activity. This paper also finds that community choirs operating over long periods of time can become highly skilled, and although individual musical ability is challenged to ensure continued development, newer inexperienced aspirants also require opportunity to access this cultural activity.

AFTS eZine Issue 11: Magical Transformations, 2023

Telling stories of the genealogical links to ancestral faeries through ceremony in song, poems an... more Telling stories of the genealogical links to ancestral faeries through ceremony in song, poems and rituals connect and strengthen a people's identity to place. Irish guerrilla secret societies bonded by the ideals and values embedded in these stories transformed nations by creating better working conditions for the labouring classes. Fairy tales transported with convicts to Australia collided and fused with the stories of ancestral beings of a more ancient people that transforms and builds this nation's identity and sense of self in connection to country.

This paper discusses how creativity is identified as the central theme in analyzing how cultural ... more This paper discusses how creativity is identified as the central theme in analyzing how cultural policy has evolved within an Australian context. It is drawn from a larger study exploring creative expression in the ordinary and everyday. The discussion demonstrates that in the absence of an integrated national approach to cultural planning founded on an articulation of collectively shared values, current government cultural planning practice views professional creative practitioners as valuable human assets fuelling economic growth. Arts service providers are increasingly required to provide evidence of the economic impact of their professional practice where government policy features economic factors as central to planning. Although there is an increasing recognition of the arts promoting social capital, innovation is viewed as a key resource in policy planning with creative industries driving cultural growth and development. Articulating how the arts present opportunities for neg...

Journal of Economic and Social Policy, 2015

The convergence of art and culture within Australian cultural policy disguises conflicting and pr... more The convergence of art and culture within Australian cultural policy disguises conflicting and preferred meanings ascribed to key terms such as 'culture' and 'community'. Arguments for funding the arts tend to support programs that express a universalising script of a commonly shared Australian national identity. This study has recorded and analysed interviews with six arts/cultural policy managers and eleven creative practitioners to assess the impact of Australian cultural policy. The study The research was made possible with the generous cooperation of each of the contributing participants. I thank Diana Blom, Anna Gibbs and Anne Power who supervised various aspects of the study. Hart Cohen made the completion of the study possible, and words cannot express my gratitude. Also to Lauris Elms and Jean Callaghan who have taken the journey with me from teacher to friend. The work is dedicated to my partner Jonathon for his inexhaustible patience and support. v

Conference Presentations by Elizabeth E Slottje

AFTS Sydney Conference , 2023

The dingo has been viewed as a threat since Australian colonial settlement to this day, however t... more The dingo has been viewed as a threat since Australian colonial settlement to this day, however there is another layer of spiritual understanding of the place that this creation being has in stories handed down over millennia. The presentation will dip into these stories that give meaning to understanding how the corridor that the animal travels between NSW and Qld country was created. The dingo story changes motifs and players as it travels between clans and tribes that mirror the gradient and contours of the features of the land.

CHASS Conference, 2023

The DNA of Australia's national identity is deeply rooted in the stories that have been passed do... more The DNA of Australia's national identity is deeply rooted in the stories that have been passed down thousands of generations in each First Nations language clan that comprise our continent. In spite of neglect and misunderstanding of their importance, these stories continue to generate meaning as connected to the people and the places from where they originate.

Teaching Documents by Elizabeth E Slottje