This article describes a creative narrative practice using music and song. It draws on collective narrative practice, rescued speech, and poetic and collective documentation, and fuses these with musical performance to create a new practice: collective narrative song creation. We share practical descriptions and stories of the enlivening process of developing a song and the transformative nature of linking lives through performing together. Creating lyrics affords opportunities for people to document hardships and honour resistance; performing the song using instruments and voices as a group can be joyful, connecting and powerfully sustaining. Songs connect with memory, allowing richer storylines to be recalled quickly and to reverberate past the initial performance. This paper outlines the steps involved and invites readers to consider incorporating the ideas into their practice, encouraging them to cross borders into unfamiliar territories and seize the opportunity to revisit and expand their musical biographies.

Key words: music, song, songwriting, rescued speech, poetic documents, therapeutic documents, collective narrative practice, narrative therapy

Portnoy, S., Van Daele, M., & McParland, J. (2026). Linking lives through collective narrative song creation. International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, (2), 26–39. https://doi.org/10.4320/QGRJ1678