Dreaming Inside: An evaluation of a creative writing program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men in prison

Published date01 June 2020
Date01 June 2020
AuthorElena Marchetti,Natalia Hanley
DOI10.1177/0004865820905894
Subject MatterArticles
Article
Dreaming Inside: An
evaluation of a creative
writing program for
Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander men in prison
Natalia Hanley
University of Wollongong, Australia
Elena Marchetti
Griffith University, Australia
Abstract
Arts-based prison programs are often viewed as hobbies or as activities that have little impact
on prisoner rehabilitation according to conventional understandings of the term. This is
despite growing evidence that arts-based programs can assist with learning retention and
can improve self-confidence and ways of coping with emotions. Generally, arts practices have
been found to assist Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have grown up or live
in urban areas with asserting and strengthening their cultural identity, but we know little
about the effects of arts-based prison programs on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
prisoner wellbeing. This article focuses on a creative writing program for Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander prisoners at Junee Correctional Centre, New South Wales. The pro-
gram, Dreaming Inside, has produced seven volumes of poetry and stories. This article
combines and reports findings from two evaluations of the program, one using program
feedback forms and the other using semi-structured interviews with prisoners who partic-
ipated in the program. The themes that emerged from both evaluations affirm the program’s
efficacy in improving prisoner self-esteem, confidence and wellbeing, and in reigniting and
strengthening cultural engagement.
Keywords
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, colonisation, creative writing, prison program,
wellbeing
Corresponding author:
Natalia Hanley, School of Health and Society, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia.
Email: nhanley@uow.edu.au
Australian & New Zealand Journal of
Criminology
2020, Vol. 53(2) 285–302
!The Author(s) 2020
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/0004865820905894
journals.sagepub.com/home/anj
Date received: 18 November 2019; accepted: 21 January 2020
Introduction
Twice a year the Black Wallaby Writers of the South Coast Writers Centre conduct
creative writing workshops for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men imprisoned in
Junee Correctional Centre (JCC) in New South Wales. These workshops are part of the
Dreaming Inside: Voices from Junee Correctional Centre (Dreaming Inside) program,
which was conceived in 2010 by a Wadi Wadi Elder, Dr Barbara Nicholson (Aunty
Barb), when she visited JCC (and other non-prison locations) for the Write Around the
Murray Festival. After that initial visit, Aunty Barb and members of the Black Wallaby
Writers decided to run a creative writing and reading workshop with the Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander prisoners during NAIDOC week in June 2012. The name
‘Dreaming Inside’ was coined by the men who participated in this workshop. A product
of that workshop was volume 1 of Dreaming Inside: Voices from Junee Correctional
Centre. Seven years later, Volume 7 was launched in May 2019. The aim of the program
was to develop the creative writing skills of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men in
prison, as a form of expression and in the process, improve their self-esteem. It was not
to ‘offer literacy classes’ but rather to get the men ‘thinking and writing creatively’
(Nicholson, 2017, p. 21).
The program has been delivered differently over the years, but since 2013 it has
featured f‌ive workshops run over three days, in May and October each year. The
only requirement for participation in the program is that the men have an Aboriginal
or Torres Strait Islander heritage and that they have no active association alerts (nec-
essary for restricting associations between certain prisoners) or restrictive protection
status (necessary if certain prisoners require protection). The workshops commence
with Aunty Barb introducing herself and the tutors and explaining that they are there
to teach them how to write poems and stories so that they can become published
authors. The men are given paper and pens and are told that it does not matter how
they write, as long as they write. They are told that they can ask for their work to be
edited but if they don’t, their work will be published as it is submitted. Participants have
the freedom to write on almost any topic
1
and in any form of literature they choose
including poetry, prose, song and social/political commentary (Nicholson, 2018, p. 14).
There are currently no other programs like the Dreaming Inside program in Australia,
since it is the only creative writing prison program in Australia that specif‌ically targets
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
2
Volume 7 (published in 2019) was over six times larger (234 pages) than Volume 1
published in 2013 (38 pages). There were f‌ive men who contributed to Volume 1 and 86
who contributed to Volume 7. The contributions speak about childhood memories and
experiences, hardships and discrimination, government intervention in the personal lives
of the men in prison, how and why the men became caught up in the criminal justice
system, and views about how the devastating legacy of colonisation has impacted on the
lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Some of the men include artwork
along with their written contributions, which is also reproduced with permission in the
286 Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology 53(2)

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