This beloved Wadi Wadi Elder is helping mob in prison become published authors

The program is Aunty Barb's pride and joy, but with limited funding options, she's been funding some of it with her pension.

Aunty Barb is the mastermind behind the program which has released 11 editions filled with the stories of incarcerated Aboriginal men. Credit: Dijana Damjanovic

For 12 years, Aunty Barbara Nicholson has pioneered a program that has seen the writings of incarcerated Aboriginal men published.

This year, Aunty Barb travelled from her home in Port Kembla to Junee prison on Wiradjuri Country to launch Volume 11 of Dreaming Inside: Voices from the Junee Correctional Centre.

The anthology is the end result of year-round work from the 87-year-old, including Black Wallaby writing workshops with the inmates.

"It has taken its own life and I sit back now, 12 years later and it's still going so strong. It gains more strength every year," she said.

Tough beginnings

Aunty Barb runs the workshops inside Junee Correctional Centre. Credit: Dijana Damjanovic

The program is a huge success, and has expandied into Dillwynia Correctional Centre with the support of her friend Bruce Pascoe.

But it wasn't always smooth sailing, with Aunty Barb admitting the project had a rough start.

"I struggled in the early days with the inmates, because they were so unused to such a program. They'd tell me 'Aunt I can't write, Aunty I've never written, Aunt I don't know anything about poetry'."

Aunty Barb encourages those inmates to start somewhere they're more comfortable.

"I'd tell them, 'If you can draw something, then you're an artist. Every drawing has a story'."

An artwork by a participant in the program. Credit: Dijana Damjanovic

Many of those drawings have made it into anthologies.

"I always tell them 'We can put whatever you do in the book, and once it's published, you're published authors. No one can ever take that away from you.'

"Their self-esteem goes through the roof," Aunty Barb said.

It's this fostering of self-worth and the change in the men that helps Aunty Barb dedicate her life to the work.

"Being here, working with the inmates in the workshops, this is by far my favourite part," she said.

"The rest is hard work. [But] I get to witness first-hand that living thing and that buzz keeps me going all year long."

The power of writing

Junee Correctional Facility on Wiradjuri Country is one of the state's largest prisons. Credit: Dijana Damjanovic

It's a buzz that the inmates share.

"Writing helps me ... physically, but mainly emotionally," one said.

"Being stolen as a young child, remembering it, it's been like therapy writing about it and getting it out."

There aren't many rules when it comes to writing. Inmates are free to write about whatever they want, including culture and incarceration.

"Family is a big one for me, my little boy. I don't have much contact with him while I'm in jail," said one of the program participants.

"I just miss him so much and it's really made me think about my life in general."

For that inmate, writing has been an escape and a way to form friendships while inside.

"It's a release for me. Putting it down on paper, it makes you look at it from a different angle," he said.

"It gets all the boys together, and lifts morale in the jail too."

A well-loved Aunty

Aunty Barb alongside one of the participants of the Black Wallaby workshops at Junee Correctional Centre. Credit: Dijana Damjanovic

Aunty Barb, formerly an academic, started the program after a student she was teaching through a university outreach program was transferred to Junee in the final six months of their degree.

Through that connection, staff at Junee asked Aunty Barb back for NAIDOC week. But her acceptance of the invitation was conditional on getting the Dreaming Inside program up and running in the centre.

Since those days, Aunty Barb has worked with hundreds of inmates, with some of the very first participants still getting involved.

"I love Aunty Barb, she's beautiful," said one of the inmates.

"She takes the program so seriously, she puts in a lot of hard work and work that we don't see too behind the scenes."

An uncertain future

Aunty Barb's workshops are a place for many of the men to open up about their lives and their mental health. Credit: Dijana Damjanovic

At almost 90 years old, Aunty Barb worries about the longevity of the program; not only due to her advanced age, but also because of the severe lack of funding options.

Currently she is investing some of her personal pension into the program to pay for manuscripts, transport and publishing.

She estimates the program costs around $70,000 per year, and with no solid funding options, she's never able to tell the men for certain there'll be another edition.

"We have sort of run out of funding options, we never know from one year to the next if we're going to be able to keep going," she said.

"Elon Musk if you want to give us some money, go for it! Maccas, I'll fly the golden arches if we could get some corporate funding."

But, for as long as Aunty Barb can, she will keep Dreaming Inside alive.

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