Display of Artwork by Young People at Don Dale Youth Detention Centre and Aycliffe Secure Centre
A key aim of the project is to engage with vulnerable and disadvantaged young people within criminal justice systems. Laura and Liz delivered a day of art and poetry workshops at Don Dale Youth Detention Centre on the outskirts of Darwin.
This part of the project reaches out to young people who would not otherwise easily access the arts, offering them opportunities to create high quality work with experienced practitioners.
Don Dale was built over 30 years ago as a maximum-security prison for adults. The premises was repurposed as a youth detention centre in 2015. Conditions are appalling. Children are locked in cells for at least 13 hours daily and it would seem most days they are routinely locked away for far longer. We were told that over 90% of the children are Aboriginal.
In 2017 a royal commission found the Don Dale juvenile detention centre ‘wholly inappropriate’ for children and concluded it should be shut down immediately.
A report in The Guardian (June 2023) says that according to data from the Department of Territory Families, Housing and Communities, ‘There are 15 children with a diagnosed disability in the Northern Territory’s detention centres, but many more are believed to have undiagnosed conditions, which advocates say are made worse by lack of appropriate treatment and inadequate staffing’.
A protest vigil calling for the closure of Don Dale has gathered outside the detention centre every Friday since Christmas Day 2021.
The project team have delivered ‘The Stolen Generations Project’, short intensive cross-artform sessions in dance, creative writing and visual art at Aycliffe Secure Centre, a residential youth detention centre in the UK, for young people aged 10 – 18 (2018, 2020, 2023). Some sessions have culminated in displays of artwork and creative writing and the young people engaging in performances with professional dance artists.
Display of artwork and poetry created by young people at Don Dale Youth Detention Centre, Australia, and Aycliffe Secure Centre, UK.
Darwin Exhibition Centre 7th – 11th August.
