top of page

Closing the Prison Gap 2018 

Australian National Conference on Indigenous Incarceration 

28-29 June 2018

Mantra at Salt Beach

There were three major inquiries in 2017, relevant to youth justice and Indigenous incarceration. One was the Australian Law Reform Commission's inquiry into the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the criminal justice system, led by Judge Matthew Myers, a Wiradjuri/Gadigal man. Then there was the Royal Commission into Child Protection and Detention in the Northern Territory. There was also the Lammy Review in Britain, an inquiry by the Hon David Lammy, MP for Tottenham, into the treatment of black, Asian and minority youth in the United Kingdom. At this conference we will hear from Judge Myers and David Lammy, and Dr Thalia Anthony will talk about the Royal Commission. We will also hear from medical, legal and community experts on FASD ... fetal alcohol spectrum disorders ... and youth justice. 

On the second day Thomas Turarongo Wynne, an adviser to the Cook Islands Prime Minister, will talk about culture and resilience and the youth justice system on the island of Rarotonga. A number of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people will talk about their work on healing programs as alternatives to prison. The day will end with a presentation by Thomas Mayor, a Torres Strait man, on the Uluru Statement from the Heart. 

Conference Presenters

​

Thursday 28 June

Judge Matthew Myers

Dr Thalia Anthony

The Hon David Lammy MP

Professor Chris Cunneen

Magistrate Cathy McLennan

Sharon Payne

Dr Stephen Hagan

Dr Raewyn Mutch

Robyn Williams

Justine Bennell

Magistrate Tina Previtera

Mervyn Eades Ngalla Maya WA

​

Friday 29 June

Thomas Tarurongo Wynne 

Krystal Lockwood

Jocelyn Jones

Gerry Georgatos

Professor Emerita Judy Atkinson

Michelle Cowan

Cynthia Poirier

Dr Barbara Nicholson

Professor Elena Marchetti

Jeffery Amatto

Maryam E Clay

Wayne Sanderson: Balanced Justice 

Maddie Wood: Amnesty International

Thomas Mayor: Uluru Statement from the Heart

​

Garry Kafoa on didgeridoo

​

Closing the Prison Gap: 2017 Focus on the Children

​

29 September 2017 at the Twin Towns Club in Wharf Street Tweed Heads New South Wales 

​

​

In Australia a child is held to be responsible for criminal offences at the age of 10. This means that a child can be arrested, charged, convicted in court and incarcerated at age 10 or 11. 86% of the children this age who are in custody are First Nations.

​

Our conference this year is focused on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and how they can be protected from involvement with the criminal justice system. Research in Western Australia has found that 30-40% of young people in custody have learning disabilities. If the schools can identify the children who need remedial therapy, early intervention may make the difference.

​

Children who have suffered trauma and especially those who have suffered ongoing family violence or child abuse need therapy but First Nations children need culturally appropriate therapy. Cultural play, art and dance are being used to heal trauma.

​

29 September 2017 at Twin Towns Club

​

Tweed Heads Northern New South Wales

​

9 am registration Visions Room

9.30 welcome Garry Kafoa didgeridoo

9.45 Uncle Aubrey Cora young people and the justice system

10.15 Leanne Phillips and Cath Stillwell healing the womyn healing the child

10.45 morning tea

​

11.15 Professor Judy Atkinson trauma informed healing

11.45 Belinda McElligott and Pam Greer weaving the net

12.15 Rebecca Couch Sigrid Herring and Marlene Lauw tackling violence

12.45 lunch 1.25 Kinship Festival video

​

1.45 Dr Anthea Krieg coordinaing services in South Australia

2.15 Jyi Lawnton and Casey Bird Indigenous policy and the scientific gaze

2.45 Chris Lee and Helen Farley making th connection inside

3.15 afternoon tea

​

3.45 Gud's Aboriginal Services assessment diagnosis and diversion

4.00 Amnesty International youth justice projects

4.15 Mervyn Eades and Gerry Georgatos closing the prison gap

4.45 Close Garry Kafoa didgeridoo

​

​

​

Closing the Prison Gap: 2016 Building Cultural Resilience 

 

In the South Pacific Ocean there is a mountainous island that rises steeply out of a deep blue sea. Its name is Rarotonga ... it means Down South in the Polynesian language we know as Maori.  

 

Rarotonga is a little known island that was first missionised and then colonised by the British in the 19th century, but today it is the main island in the Cook Islands, a self-governing Pacific nation, in free association with New Zealand. There has never been a children's home, a boarding school or a juvenile detention centre on Rarotonga and the nation's only prison has eleven cells. Crime rates are very low and most of the young prisoners are guilty of petty theft. Murder, armed robbery, and other violent offences are almost unknown.

 

In July 2011 I spent four weeks interviewing people on Rarotonga, adults and young people, police and prison officers, child welfare officers, teachers, counsellors, high school students, and prisoners. It was clear that the traditional culture of the Cook Islands Maori was making a major contribution to this apparently peaceful paradise, a culture that values family relationships above everything else and accepts children as the greatest gift from the divine to humanity. The few young men who had fallen foul of the law had lost their connections with their extended families due to illness, death, substance abuse or emigration. They were the exceptions to the rule. 

​

I studied post-colonial theory, critical race theory, cultural resilience and self-determination theory, trying to make sense of what was happening on Rarotonga. I came to the rather obvious conclusion that children are protected by their relationships with other people (what Michael Rutter called "social processes as protective factors") and on Rarotonga that is known as piri'anga or emotional connection. My other conclusions were that it is culture that teaches us how these human relationships work and that we need freedom (self-determination) in order to practice culture. 

 

In Australia the First Nations peoples fill up the prisons in every state and the children in the juvenile detention centres are mostly First Nations people too. The rate of incarceration of Indigenous people in Australia is far higher than that of African-Americans in the USA or of black people in apartheid South Africa. The suicide rates are also very high. Some have thought that the cultural resilience of First Nations peoples had been almost extinguished in Australia by the invasion, the missions and the native reserves, but this is quite wrong.

​

On Invasion Day 2015, after I had handed in my thesis and my PhD was completed, I started another course of study ... although I didn't know it at the time. I set up a Facebook page called Close the Prison Gap and slowly but surely I began to connect to other people who cared about the mass incarceration of First Nations peoples. I met so many amazing people (First Nations and not) online and I realised that cultural resilience is alive and well in Australia. People are working to keep the children safe in their own communities and working to help ex-prisoners find work and training. Schools are being set up with cultural wisdom. Elders are teaching the stillness of Dadirri and we are all being invited into the new Dreaming. Languages are being reclaimed and voices are being raised. WE ARE STILL HERE say the banners.

​

It seemed that we needed a conference on Closing the Prison Gap by building cultural resilience and, once that started to be talked about, it became an exciting reality. So many people have supported it and are willing to give their time to make it happen. On 10 and 11 October the first national conference on Closing the Prison Gap will be held at the Mantra at Salt Beach in Cudgenburra country (Kingscliff South 2487).

​

This conference is self-funded and the registration fees below are designed to cover the costs, which will include some complimentary tickets and other financial assistance for local Elders and other people. If you would like to attend please email me on mperkinsnsw@gmail.com.

​

Speakers include Mervyn Eades, winner of the Eddie Mabo Social Justice Award 2016 and Tauto Sansbury, winner of the NAIDOC Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015. Also Professor Muriel Bamblett, the CEO of the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency and Ken Zulumovski who teaches Gamarada Indigenous Healing. And more.

​

Full fee for two days and the conference dinner $550

​

Early bird fee before 10 July including dinner $440

​

Concession fee including dinner $275 students/health care card/groups 

​

One day only, no dinner $99 

​

The venue is close to Coolangatta Airport and the hotel has accommodation available. There are also a number of motels and caravan parks in Kingscliff and the surrounding area. 

​

There is a fish and chip shop, ice cream shop and coffee bar next door to the Mantra hotel. The beach is beautiful and life savers are on duty.

 

 

Closing the Prison Gap: Building Cultural Resilience, Conference Program online 

​
Monday 10 October 2016 

8.30 Registration tea/coffee

9.00 Welcome to Country ... Kyle Slabb traditional descendant

9.20 Introduction .. Beck Couch Bundjalung woman Emcee

​

Theme One Prevention: Children and Families

​

9.30 Kaiyu Moura Bayles, Wonnarua, Wirri and Wakka Wakka woman, Learning the Old Ways Inspiring Positive Change

9.55 Janette Saunders, Dharug woman, Aboriginal Family Group Conferencing, Dhum Djirri model

10.20 Professor Muriel Bamblett, Yorta Yorta woman, CEO Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency

​

10.50 morning tea ... Garry Kafoa on didgeridoo

​

11.15 Michelle Laurie, Gummbaingirr woman, & Rebecca Blore, Anaiwan woman, Brighter Futures Supporting Families 

11.40 Natasha Urbano Mace, Hymba Yumba Community Hub, Children at School and Indigenous Culture

12.05 Professor Ross Homel, Griffith Criminology Institute, Creating Pathways to Prevention 

12.35 Panel Discussion with Dr Megan Williams, Wiradjuri woman, Western Sydney University

​

1.00 lunch on the terrace with the Joongurra Jarjums dancers

​

Theme Two Reintegration: People Already in the System

​

1.55 Therese Ellis-Smith PhD candidate Bond University, Interventions and Indigenous Prisoners 

2.20 Professor Joe Graffam, Deakin University, Enhancing Employment opportunities for Indigenous prisoners

2.45 Mervyn Eades, Nyoongar man, Eddie Mabo Social Justice Award Winner, Ngalla Maya Prison to Work Program

3.15 Panel Discussion with Dr Megan Williams

​

3.40 afternoon tea ... Garry Kafoa on didgeridoo

​

4.00 Dr Bruce Watt, Bond University, Assessment of Young People, Are they Fit to Plead?

4.25 Dr Jan Hammill, Gamilaraay woman, University of Queensland, Collaboration for Alcohol Related Developmental Disorders - FASD and the Criminal Justice System

4.50 Panel Discussion with Dr Megan Williams

​

6.30 Conference Dinner on the Terrace

7.00 Kaiyu Moura Bayles songs & poetry

 

Tuesday 11 October 2016

 

Theme Three Healing : Culture and Resilience

​

9.30 Ken Zulumovski & Carolyn Minchin, Gamarada Indigenous Healing and Life Training

9.55 Catherine Jackson Gidgup, Gamarada, Yarn Australia and Grandmothers against Removal

10.20 Lara Bennet & Deirdre Currie, International Women's Day Award Winners, Kids Caring for Country and Learning our Way

​

10.50 morning tea ... Garry Kafoa on didgeridoo

​

11.15 Cleonie Quayle Snr, Maljangapa woman, & Keith Quayle, cultural ways to reintegration & social enterprise

11.40 Gayle Munn, Gunggari woman, & Robert Lacey, Waka Waka man, Lateral Peace Project

12.05 Keelen Mailman, Bidjara woman, author "The Power of Bones" Mother of the Year, & Keith Hamburger, ex Director QCSC, Mount Tabor Station Healing and Rehabilitation Centre

12.35 Panel Discussion with Dr Megan Williams 

​

Lunch on the terrace with the Quandamooka Dancers

​

Theme Four: Social Justice and Self-Determination

​

1.55 Christopher Lee, USQ, technology and educational opportunities in prison

2.20 Gerry Georgatos, Institute for Social Justice and Human Rights, WA, Transformation: Encouraging the Positive Self

2.45 Professor Harry Blagg, School of Law University of Western Australia, Indefinite sentence: colonial dispossession

3.15 Panel Discussion with Dr Megan Williams

​

3.40 afternoon tea ... Garry Kafoa on didgeridoo

​

4.00 Dr Megan Williams, Wiradjuri woman, Western Sydney University, Indigenous Research Leadership is Essential

4.30 Tauto Sansbury, NAIDOC Lifetime Achievement Award Winner, Closing Address 

​

​

CTPG Organising Committee

Rebecca Couch, Megan Williams, Angela Maxwell, Meg Perkins

CTPG Community Partners

Pottsville Beach Neighbourhood Centre, Consortium of Neighbourhood Centres Far North Coast

​

​

MY BOOKS
bottom of page