Indigenous Prisoners Speak Out

Issue 

BY BREE MCKILLIGAN

Indigenous prisoners in Victoria will be broadcasting live from July 3 to 7 on 3CR 855AM in Melbourne during NAIDOC (National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee) Week.

In Australia's only live broadcasts from prison, Indigenous men and women will be speaking directly to the public about their experiences of incarceration. While only 2.4% of the general population, Indigenous people make up 22% of the prison population, with an increase of 12% from 2004 to 2005. Indigenous broadcaster and activist Kutcha Edwards states that, "We get pulled over the coals of a law that is not ours".

The broadcasts are running for the fifth year. Fitzroy-based 3CR community radio station conducted the first live prison broadcast in 2002 from the Port Phillip Prison. This year, the the broadcasts will take place from Port Phillip Prison, the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre and Fulham Prison in Gippsland. The project has won numerous awards including the 2004 Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity (HREOC) Radio Award.

Edwards and photographer/writer/performance poet Lisa Bellear have been holding music and spoken word workshops in the prisons. "We're giving the opportunity of a voice to the Indigenous inmates. 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", said Edwards. NAIDOC Week, he said, "is a community event and Indigenous prisoners have a right to be involved".

The prison broadcasts are part of a week of Indigenous special programming on 3CR 855AM. The prison programming will be simulcast on 3KND 1503AM.

From Green Left Weekly, June 28, 2006.
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