Life On The Job


ART THERAPIST: Tanja Johnston

Tanja Johnston is a multidisciplinary artist, arts educator and art therapist specialising in supporting current and former members of the ADF, veterans, emergency service personnel and families, facilitating Arts based engagement and recovery programs.

Tanja is the partner of a veteran, daughter and granddaughter of veterans. She works across educational, clinical, defence and veteran community (ESO & VSO) settings. Tanja is the foundation Visual Arts Lead of the recently developed ADF Arts for Recovery, Resilience, Teamwork and Skills (ARRTS) Program, delivering arts workshops as a rehabilitative tool for wounded, injured and ill veterans. Tanja is the Head of Arts Programs at the Australian National Veterans Arts Museum.

Tanja talking
Tanja talking with a Veteran


"When I was at ACU, there were only 35 or 40 in our cohort. It was quite an intimate setting and we got to know each other and our lecturers really well.

Since uni, I've been a secondary school teacher and also went on to do a Master of Art Therapy [La Trobe University].

One of the real benefits of doing my degree at ACU was that we could learn across three different streams. For me it was visual art, English, and religious education. I've been very employable and I've had many diverse teaching opportunities.

My partner is in the Army, so we've moved around the country. Being a teacher has put me in interesting communities and I've worked in both public and independent schools.

At ACU we were very close to the Indigenous unit and as young educators we worked a lot with them. So in Darwin, I taught in an Indigenous studies unit. Part of the work involved going out to remote communities to work with students in places like Maningrida and Gove, which was fantastic.

Then we moved to Sydney where I worked at St Aloysius College, right on Sydney Harbour. It was quite a culture shock!

 Now I also work with the veteran community, returned service personnel, and current military members serving in the army, navy and air force. Three years ago, my husband and I started a charity, ANVAM, the Australian National Veterans Art Museum, utilising his experience as a veteran and mine as an art teacher. We've found art is intrinsically therapeutic.

ANVAM

Art therapy has a very long history going back to WWI. Returned servicemen were using it when they came back from war. We have a lot of veterans who became famous artists - Sidney Nolan, for example.

I'm still teaching art and English at a number of different high schools. Keeping the students engaged is a big challenge. I think we've lost a lot of those grass-roots skills - now we've got a screen in front of us, we're not learning how to problem solve. Art allows us to do that."
(Source: ACU website)

Remembrance (The Official Shrine Magazine)

April Vol 6 No1
Healing Arts

Healing Arts


Art has long been associated with the military. Within Australia’s military tradition the arts have played multiple roles: in recording Australia’s involvement in war, as the musical accompaniment to ceremonies and in the, lesser known, rehabilitation and recovery of the wounded, injured and ill.

The Australian National Veterans Arts Museum (ANVAM) is a charity established in Melbourne by art teacher and art therapist, Tanja Johnston, and her husband Mark, himself a veteran, to help restore the healing role of the arts for veterans. Through her work over the past 15 years, art therapy and arts engagement are gaining prominence in the serving and veteran community by addressing and supporting mental, social and physical health for veterans and families.

Tanja explains ‘Veterans are supported by ANVAM through art therapy and arts engagement. Art therapy is a recognised psychotherapeutic allied health profession that emerged in Australia, the United Kingdom and United States, largely from the military repatriation use of arts for recovery during the First and Second World Wars. Art therapy involves art-making in a therapeutic relationship witnessed by a qualified art therapist, with emphasis on the process rather than the product. A unique yet rewarding challenge is the way each generation of veterans has differing needs, from Second Word War veterans in their 90’s to recent veterans in their early 20’s.’
(Source: ANVAM)
  

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