Resumen

MCLELLAN, Simon. Ko Wai Au: A Decolonial Reflection on Psychodrama, Presence, and Inner Child Witnessing. Vínculo [online]. 2025, vol.22, e220017.  Epub 05-Dic-2025. ISSN 1806-2490.  https://doi.org/10.32467/issn.1982-1492v22na17.

This reflective experience report offers a decolonial psychodramatic encounter with the inner child, prompted by the viewing of Ka Puna Te Wai, Ko Te Kāwai Puna (Rakena, 2015). Through the symbolic presence of water and ancestral imagery, the film stirred deep emotional responses related to childhood neglect. The author recounts a vivid psychodramatic moment of standing behind their younger self as a witness-not to intervene, but to accompany. The reflection explores core psychodramatic principles such as doubling and surplus reality, while also questioning Eurocentric assumptions of healing, linear resolution, and emotional mastery. Drawing on Indigenous and relational ethics, particularly the Māori question Ko wai au? (“Who am I?”), this piece reframes presence as a decolonial act: a refusal to pathologize pain, and a turning toward it with humility. The article closes by offering implications for group psychodrama practice, emphasizing presence, poetic witnessing, and cultural responsiveness in work with intergenerational trauma.

Palabras llave : Psychodrama; Decoloniality; Inner child; Witnessing; Relational ethics.

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