Indigenous prisoners broadcast

Issue 

BY BREE MCKILLIGAN

For the fourth year running, Australia's only prison radio broadcasts will go to air. Indigenous prisoners in Victoria will be broadcasting live radio from July 4-8 on community radio 3CR during NAIDOC (National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee) week.

3CR conducted the first live prison broadcast in 2002. The project has won numerous awards, including the 2004 Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Radio Award.

Indigenous broadcasters and performers Kutcha Edwards and Lisa Bellear have been holding music and spoken-word workshops in the prisons. "We are Aboriginal people all year round and we cop racism every day of our lives. NAIDOC is one time of the year when we can have a voice", Edwards said. NAIDOC Week "is a community event and Indigenous prisoners have a right to be involved".

Shaun Braybrook, Koori liaison worker at Port Phillip Prison, who has been involved in the project from the beginning, said: "The broadcasts let people remember the forgotten people — once they're in jail they're forgotten. All the prisoners and the prison staff tune in to the broadcasts on the day. It's hard to get reception in the prison — we have to put the radio in one spot and hold the aerial in another."

From Green Left Weekly, July 6, 2005.
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