ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the wider impacts that participation in musical creativity activities can bring, with particular reference to the use of such activities as a tool for social and ethnic inclusion. Increasing evidence is available of the power of musical participation to shape individual identities, from monographs and comprehensive reviews. A nursery teacher explained that children were totally immersed in musical activities whenever they had a music specialist visiting the school. During a cross-community project, her school was paired with another nursery school from across the divide. The chapter describes an account of an exploratory enquiry into using such activities as a tool for inclusion in cross-community settings in Northern Ireland, including examples of practitioners' and children's perceptions of the activities. Children in conflict and post-conflict societies grow up in segregated neighbourhoods and are likely to develop prejudices against the cultural forms of 'the others', such as flags and songs.
