Summary

This interactive workshop will engage participants in discussion and reflection on ethics in social work and contributing to social movements through research, pedagogy and practice using oral and visual storytelling methods of Photovoice and Filipino talk-story,  Kuwentuhan. The presenter will draw from literature, findings and reflections of using these methods in a dissertation project with LGBTQ+ Filipino/a/xs, in teaching social work and in community practice to illustrate how and why it is a meaningful intervention that can support critical ethics, relationalities and collective healing toward longer term movement-building.  From July to October 2022, the researcher combined these community-based participatory action research methods for a dissertation project involving seven participants of the LGBTQ+ Filipino/a/x diaspora, community member facilitators and community groups in Tiohtià:ke/ Montreal, Quebec, Canada (Turtle Island). This project addresses the limited, yet growing literature that documents, re-shares and theorizes around queer of colour organizing, advocacy, movement-building and Filipino/a/x diaspora in Canada. The process involved feedback from a Filipino migration storytelling group called Pulso ng Bayan (pulse of the people/ nation), a four-workshop series, an art exhibit, interviews, a group feedback and celebratory session, and knowledge mobilization. Kuwentuhan involves cultural storytelling shaped by seeing oneself in a relational context.  In addition to presenting about study findings and reflections, the presenter will involve workshop participants in using their own photography and oral storytelling to reflect on co-creating sites in which individuals, groups and communities may express their selves, meaning making and narratives while building collective (re)connections and co-constructing more ethical relations that look toward transforming oppression and supporting community-led praxis. The interactive component of the workshop will explore how these methods can translate across research, pedagogy and practice to advance self-reflexive practice, critical thought, and engage with and enact longer-term collective healing and relational movement-building that challenges social and systemic marginalization. 

Keywords (separate with commas)

Ethics in social work; social movements; advocacy; community-based participatory action research; Photovoice; oral and visual storytelling; gender identity and sexuality; Filipino diaspora and migration; Canadian immigration