Being in Between: Exploring Cultural Bereavement and Identity Expression through Drawing

Abstract

When leaving their country of origin, immigrant children experience various losses that can lead to a grief reaction called cultural bereavement. Being an ambiguous loss, cultural bereavement can complicate children’s identity construction by creating a gap between home and host country identities that may affect children’s sense of belonging and identity. Yet, drawing can support immigrant children in the meaning-making process necessary to work through the experience of cultural bereavement, as it is a non-threatening way to safely express emotionally charged material. This article presents the case study of an 11-year-old immigrant Egyptian girl who used drawing in the context of classroom-based creative expression workshops to express her cultural bereavement process and create a new meaningful identity.

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