Listening to Country: a prison pilot project that connects Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women on remand to Country

ABSTRACT

Research shows that prison programs addressing intergenerational trauma and grief, loss of culture and spiritual healing are necessary for incarcerated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Indigenous-led or culturally focused programs receive little attention and limited resourcing in Australia’s prison system compared with mainstream rehabilitation programs. Depending on the jurisdiction and prison, such programs can be even less accessible for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. Listening to Country was an arts-based prison pilot project that was developed by and delivered to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in the Brisbane Women’s Correctional Centre. It aimed to explore the role of acoustic ecology, soundscape and deep listening in connection to culture and Country. This article presents findings from a process evaluation of that pilot project in order to illustrate the potential for Indigenous-led, culturally focused and culturally safe prison programs to improve wellbeing for incarcerated Indigenous peoples.

KEYWORDS:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prison programs
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in prison
• Country
• cultural maintenance and wellbeing
• Dadirri

Acknowledgements

This evaluation was supported under the Australian Research Council’s Future Fellowship funding scheme (project number FT140100313) and a grant from the Lowitja Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Research Lowitja grant number (017-SF-020). The research was also supported by the Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre, Griffith University. We are particularly grateful to all the incarcerated women, Elders and corrections staff who participated in the research, and to Dr Claire Walker, Principal Advisor, Murridhagun Cultural Centre, Queensland Corrective Services Academy for her continued support and assistance with the Listening to Country project and research. We would also like to thank the reviewers of the article for their extensive and thoughtful feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Authors’ note

The research discussed in this article was completed with support from Queensland Corrective Services. The views expressed herein are solely those of the authors and in no way reflect the views or policies of Queensland Corrective Services.

Notes

1 The term ‘Country’ is often used by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to describe family origins and associations with particular parts of Australia. It refers to ancestral connections to homelands and is an essential ontological concept and relationship that grounds understandings of kinship, place and belonging (Carlson, 2016). The term is often capitalised to describe and pay respect to Indigenous peoples’ Country or Countries affiliation and belongingness.

2 The Australian Bureau of Statistics did not publish a break-down of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners according to sex and jurisdiction in 2000. The earliest year in which it presented this data was in 2001.

3 Yarning is a fundamental practice within Australian First Nations communities and a method within Indigenous research—described by Barlo et al. (2021, p. 41) as ‘[a] term commonly used by Indigenous Australians that simply means to communicate’ (italics in original). It is a sharing or exchange that happens in formal and informal settings and is recognised as a generative process for collaborative meaning making through discussion.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Lowitja Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Research [Grant number 017-SF-020]; Australian Research Council Future Fellowship: [Grant Number FT140100313].