The arts in prison
The healing properties of the arts and sports have long been recognised in Alice Springs. They cause the town to be resilient in times of hardship. Collaboration between community members in these fields has proven to be highly effective. The Parrtjima light festival, the Anaconda mountain-bike race, the Finke Desert Race, the Beanie Festival, the NT Writers Festival, the Bush Bands Bash, Desert Mob, Desert Song and the Desert Festival are examples of it. The healing properties of both sports and the arts are easily transplanted into prisons and nosirps.
The National Pioneer Women’s Hall of Fame, in conjunction with the Alice Springs Correctional
Centre, presented An Exhibition of Prisoner Art and Craft in 2016.
Culture, care and control are the pillars of the Arrernte Community Boxing Academy. The discipline and focus of boxing provide young people in Alice with a strong support network and a place to manage struggles healthily and positively.
Tourism and its attractions in and around Alice Springs used to be another field where collaboration took place on a large scale. Tourists would come to Alice Springs, no matter what. When there were strikes in the aviation or railway industry, backpackers kept arriving on bicycles on camels and in dusty 4WDs.
When I ran Alice’s Secret, the smallest backpacker’s hostel in Alice, in the 2010s, tourism was booming. There were art galleries everywhere and plenty of tours to choose from.
The decline of tourism and its attached industries began in 2009 when the Australian dollar was exceptionally high, and Asian countries began flying straight into Uluru (Alice used to be the gateway to Uluru). Galleries and other businesses gradually disappeared from the CBD,
and many shops were left empty.
Crime and Covid gave tourism the final blow. Our once so vibrant CBD became a no man’s land dominated by roller shutters.
Alice Springs is trying hard to get back on its feet. It is vital that modern, science-based solutions be found for the current crime crisis.
A normal life
Consider the case of Mick, described in a PhD thesis on Indigenous desistance from crime written by Kate Sullivan at the Australian National University in 2012: Mick was almost continuously in prison between 18 and 28. He was drug dependent and committed crimes to support his habit. When he was 26, he met his partner, Suzie. Back in prison at 28, Mick “had had enough” and began setting goals. When he turned 30, he “hit rock bottom”. He turned to
his father for help, and went to a detox centre, a residential rehabilitation program, and a methadone program. Suzie became pregnant. By 31 Mick was “leading a normal life”
with one child but no job. His first goal, to stay off the drugs, was achieved. His subsequent goals were to keep out of prison, to stay out of trouble, to get some skills, to get a good job, to get his licence and to buy a car. His ultimate goals were to buy a house and get married. He
wanted to be around for his kids. He wanted to experience a “normal life”.
Dylan Voller, in an interview with NITV in 2021, said: “I don't want just to be known as the boy in a restraint chair. I want to be known as a young man, a survivor, that broke out of a system like that and continues to fight. My dreams are to have a full-time job and live a normal life. I don't care about being rich. I don't care about being famous. I just want to be stable. Have my mental health, have my own house with my family, have a job, play sports, and continue doing the work that I'm doing, spreading awareness. Broken systems make broken kids, and our youth are our future.”
Photo: Women's Hall of Fame, Alice Springs
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