Tricia Ong’s design of a novel visual methodology: the Clay Embodiment Research Method (CERM) was inspired by critical ethnography and Participatory Action Research. The CERM is a mixed method approach comprised of 1) active participant observation, 2) a series of seven participatory clay body mapping workshops and 3) a group interview using photoethnography.
The CERM was developed during Ong’s PhD research (2014 – 2018) as a means to authentically engage illiterate, stigmatised, oppressed and marginalised young sex trafficked women in Nepal in culturally sensitive reproductive health research. The CERM provided an entry point into discussions about their perceptions and experiences of their reproductive bodies, their hopes and fears around reproduction and how these factors influenced reproductive decision-making. The CERM produced rich insights into the women’s experiences of life in a “heavily patriarchal” culture and society. It earned a Nepali name in the field: “mato ko khel” which means “play with clay”. It helped provide meaningful data for qualitative analysis in research and offered a quicker means to data generation than more traditional research methods.
The CERM is grounded in feminist theory (notably critical ethnography and standpoint theory) and the visual tools of body mapping and photography from Participatory Action Research. This was to enable the research to begin from the perspectives of the women and acknowledge that the “view” of the marginalised can provide broader insights into oppressive societal structures and enable illiterate women to participate in research. Body mapping using clay provided an access point of significance for Nepali women because it is a culturally familiar material due to its use, for example, in Hindu religious rituals. The CERM also advanced a drawing technique of body mapping from two-dimensions into three- dimensions using clay. The CERM was implemented in Nepal in 2015-2016 (after being piloted in the field) and its development and implementation is the subject of Ong’s new book: Ong, T. (2023). A feminist approach to sensitive research: designing the Clay Embodiment Research Method. Routledge.
The CERM has since been adapted for an incidental menstruation workshop with literate workshop participants in Nepal in 2019 and for a clay body mapping workshop with literate and illiterate women support women who have been sex-trafficked in Nepal in 2022. Further practiced-based research on clay is currently being conducted with art therapy educators in Melbourne in recognition that training in body mapping, the therapeutic use of clay and associated photography is needed because clay and photographs of clay body mapping can elicit trauma.
