Background
This study investigates the therapeutic potential of Indigenous Musical Arts (IMAs) in managing anxiety and distress induced by a cancer diagnosis among people with cancer (PwC) at Lusaka's Cancer Diseases Hospital.
Methodology
Rooted in Indigenous Research Methodologies (IRMs), this project employs an integrative design centred on relational accountability, community participation, and cultural responsiveness. The framework operates within the Indigenous paradigm of respect, reciprocity, relationality, and responsibility (4Rs), prioritising ethical engagement with participants and knowledge systems.
The MIECAT method—an arts-based inquiry framework that values multimodality, intersubjectivity, and companioning—supports participatory exploration of lived experiences. Participants engage through musicking, storytelling, movement, and visual art, facilitating embodied expression beyond verbal articulation.
Data collection utilises ceremonial practices including conversation circles, musical ceremonies, and collaborative storytelling sessions. The focusing process enhances introspective depth by connecting participants with bodily-felt senses of their experiences. Analysis employs bracketing, thematic mapping, and creative synthesis, privileging participants' cultural meaning-making processes over imposed analytical frameworks.
Methodological Innovation
This approach operationalises IRMs as lived ceremonial practices rather than theoretical constructs, supporting patient agency, cultural identity, and emotional resilience. Deep listening and mutual witnessing create contexts for holistic healing and knowledge co-creation between researchers and participants. The methodology tackles power imbalances present in mainstream research by positioning participants as holders of knowledge and co-researchers. Ongoing accountability with community leaders and practitioners reinforces the ethic of radical relationality.
Implications
This culturally grounded, participatory methodology offers a replicable model for context-responsive psycho-oncology research in under-resourced and culturally diverse settings. By integrating Indigenous ways of knowing with arts-based practices, the approach demonstrates how research methodologies can themselves become therapeutic interventions, advancing both knowledge generation and community healing.