Abstract
D.Ed. (Educational Psychology)
Children do not exist in isolation of their families and communities. Grief and loss therefore
affect them on multiple levels, depending on their personal, social, communal, cultural and
economic circumstances. The loss of one or both parents to AIDS in South Africa renders
orphaned children and adolescents vulnerable. In addition their grief experiences are
influenced by the personal, cultural and communal factors which determine how their
feelings of grief and loss are understood and expressed. In certain contexts and cultures, their
stories of grief and loss remain unheard and unacknowledged. In many instances, these
stories are tucked away in the open spaces and silences of their thoughts and expressions. The
purpose of this inquiry is to explore, through creative expressive arts in therapy, the stories of
grief of adolescents orphaned by AIDS living in a South African children’s home.
This critical ethnographic study describes how a qualitative arts based research method was
used to integrate creative expressive arts modalities into therapy sessions as a method of data
collection for the study. As such, the critical ethnographic design was employed in order to
give attention to the cultural context of the 16 adolescent participants and how this context
influenced their sharing of their grief experiences, following the loss of one or both parents to
AIDS. This was done in order to answer the research question: ‘What is the story of grief as
experienced by the adolescents orphaned by AIDS living in a South African children’s home,
as explored through creative expressive arts in therapy?’ In light of this, the research aim of
the study was to give an ethnographic account of grief as experienced by adolescents
orphaned by AIDS living in a South African children’s home, as explored through creative
expressive arts in therapy. Group therapy sessions using creative expressive arts facilitated
the development of various data sets which were analysed by means of discourse analysis, in
order to derive common themes relating to their stories of grief and loss. The adolescents
storied their thoughts and feelings about grief in therapy, through creative expressive arts
modalities, demonstrating how their bereavement is impacted by the personal, cultural and
social context of the South African children’s home in which they live.
The findings and practical implications of this qualitative, critical ethnography provide
insight into the grief experienced by South African adolescents orphaned by AIDS. This
research endeavour will also expose some of the underlying assumptions about grief of
adolescents who have lost one or both parents to AIDS. The study will also indicate how their
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life circumstances and grief experiences are subject to elements of power, control and even
religious orientation in their culture and community.
In order to give voice to the grief experiences of children and adolescents as forgotten
mourners, recommendations advocate further research be conducted on the grief experiences
of adolescents orphaned by AIDS in South Africa. This can be done in the form of in-depth
case studies or larger studies which make use of one or more creative expressive arts
modalities in therapy.