Art sessions are held five times a week for Indigenous detainees at the Alexander Maconochie Centre. Photo: Supplied.
For the first time in its 15-year history, a catalogue of Indigenous art is available for the wider community to view and buy online.
What makes it unique to other offerings is that they’ve all been created by detainees at Canberra’s Alexander Maconochie Centre.
ACT Corrective Services cultural services senior director Melanie Phillips said the detainee-led program helped offenders and accused people stay connected to their culture – and explore their culture further – while behind bars.
“A lot of detainees will come in and say that they have only just found out that they’ve got an Aboriginal connection and they’ve never identified before, but now they want to identify and they want to learn how to connect to their culture and what that means,” she explained.
“We give them opportunities [to understand] what symbols mean in different places … they ask to learn about their totem and then they’ll start to paint that.
“It’s really important for them to be able to express how they feel about their culture.”
The creative rehabilitation art sessions are held five times a week, structured in a way that allows remanded and sentenced Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men and women to access the program.
First Nations artist Darryl Huddleston leads a group once a fortnight and detainees also share their art skills.
They can experiment with a variety of art forms, such as painting on canvas, wood burning and carving on items such as didgeridoos, cutting boards and coasters.
Ms Phillips has watched how some detainees’ art prowess has developed since the program’s inception.
“We have a detainee that likes to paint echidnas, for instance. I’ve got some of his echidnas from 10 years ago,” she said.
“I look at the way that he paints them now and the different skills that he uses and the different techniques and it’s just been really lovely to watch that evolve.”
The AMC has a gallery-type space and a paper catalogue that can be distributed to interested parties.
But this is the first year the pieces have been available online.
“Other jurisdictions, they’ve been able to sell their art more widely and take that pride and and show it off to their families,” Ms Phillips said.
“[One detainee] came to me and said, ‘it’s amazing that I’m 1784513476 able to do that, because now everybody will be able to see my art’ … so it’s [also] about building their self-esteem and their pride in their culture, and setting them up to succeed in that reintegration space.”
The money from the sold pieces goes into the detainees’ trust account, which they can choose to transfer into their spending account.
Ms Phillips said those on longer sentences could also transfer money out to help their families.
“They feel like they’re able to contribute, which is really good,” she said.
The remaining trust money is paid out to the detainee upon their release, giving them access to cash straight away so they’re not as reliant on other resources.
The catalogue showcases almost 80 artworks by detainee artists, exploring connection to Country, cultural identity, Dreaming stories and totems.
Featured works include The Barramundi depicting the story of a barramundi swimming through the river and providing food for the people of the tribe; Dolphin Dreaming, exploring themes of loss, remembrance and comfort through the understanding that people return to the Dreamtime when they pass on; and Connections to Country, a three-panel artwork reflecting spiritual and cultural connections to land and sea, traditional hunting practices and the importance of Country.
Ms Phillips hoped everyone would take the time to consider the pieces on offer.
“They want to share it and they want people to … see what their connection to culture is and value their art for what it is,” she said.
“They take pride in their art … it’s about their art and not about their crime.”
Artwork prices start from $100 and are available for purchase through the ACT Government’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Catalogue website.
