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The music program rehabilitating inmates

<p dir="ltr">While a lot of prison inmates are not given the luxuries of life outside jail, one rehabilitation program is giving inmates one of life’s greatest pleasures: music. </p> <p dir="ltr">For Oli Firth, who was sent to Broken Hill Correctional Centre on drug-related offences, the Songbirds program changed his life.</p> <p dir="ltr">"[Music] was a real beacon of light for me. It was the one thing that carried me through," he told ABC<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lifematters/songbirds:-rehabilitation-and-music-behind-bars/13934620"> RN's Life Matters</a>.</p> <p dir="ltr">“It was the toughest time in my life.”</p> <p dir="ltr">The director of the Songbirds program, musician Murray Cook, has played with bands such as Midnight Oil, Mental as Anything and Mixed Relations.</p> <p dir="ltr">But for more than 20 years, Mr Cook has run music classes in different NSW prisons, including a stint as a music teacher in the psych ward of Sydney's Long Bay Correctional Centre.</p> <p dir="ltr">The Songbirds program, a project of the non-profit <a href="https://www.crcnsw.org.au/">Community Restorative Centre</a>, brings music and other art forms into prisons, with a focus on songwriting as a means of rehabilitation. </p> <p dir="ltr">"If you're in jail, it's a jungle. It really is. I'd hate to go there," Mr Cook says.</p> <p dir="ltr">"Because if you show any emotion, if you let on that you really love your daughter or something like that, [other prisoners] can use that against you. That's a bargaining chip for them to stand over you and get money — threaten to kill your kids, that sort of stuff."</p> <p dir="ltr">But he says, "Somehow within the context of a song, it's OK to say stuff like that, to say something like, 'I love my partner.'"</p> <p dir="ltr">As a way of dealing with feelings they believe they can’t vocalise, Mr Cook tries to get inmates to write about their feelings and experiences. </p> <p dir="ltr">However, he admits this process isn’t always straightforward. </p> <p dir="ltr">In the first session of a songwriting class, he talks about tolerance, about "not putting anyone else down, [not] being too critical".</p> <p dir="ltr">"[I also] always say in the first workshop, 'Look, your lives are really valuable … your music is so valuable.'"</p> <p dir="ltr">He says the classes can be made up of a fairly diverse group, which makes for an accepting and tolerant environment.</p> <p dir="ltr">"When you look at a group, you've got Islanders, Kooris, Middle Eastern people, bikies … They'd probably kill each other in the yard, as they tend to segregate into their own groups," Mr Cook says.</p> <p dir="ltr">"[But soon] you see a Koori guy over there working with an Asian guy and a bikie, trying to write a song, it's fantastic."</p> <p dir="ltr">It’s then over to the prisoners to perfect their songs and, if they choose, perform them for other inmates.</p> <p dir="ltr">"Once they've got it out and sung it, it's very cathartic. Just to know that somebody's listening to their story," Mr Cook says.</p> <p dir="ltr">If the inmates choose, Mr Cook helps them record their new tracks, which have been released on a series of Songbird albums over the years. </p> <p dir="ltr">"Like I always say to people in jail, music is a great way of letting off steam without hurting anyone … [But] I think the core of this is the personal transformation that comes through music," Mr Cook says.</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p>

Music

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The two words Andrew O’Keefe repeats to himself every morning

<p dir="ltr">Andrew O’Keefe is settling into a very different lifestyle after being granted bail in May following allegations he assaulted a sex worker. </p> <p dir="ltr">The former <em>The Chase Australia</em> host will complete his court ordered rehab at the Connect Global centre at Swan Bay on the NSW mid-north coast.</p> <p dir="ltr">The 50-year-old begins his day at 5.30am and tells himself that he is a “good man” before making his bed and goes for either a 3.5km run, a gym workout or a boxing session and settling for breakfast.</p> <p dir="ltr">The rehab facility will be O’Keefe’s new home for the next six to 12 months where he will complete a number of chores, attend counselling sessions and Alcoholic or Narcotics anonymous meetings. </p> <p dir="ltr">O’Keefe had been ordered to attend rehab nine times before, but this time he says will be different. </p> <p dir="ltr">“This is a very different place. It’s very much a holistic view of one’s place in the world,” he told <a href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/andrew-okeefe-reveals-life-inside-rehab-declares-this-time-will-be-different/news-story/f2640aa7ecaea8a190a57e247c789186" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Daily Telegraph</a>.</p> <p dir="ltr">“That is to say that you do address issues of addiction and patterns of behaviour but you do it in a way that is very much focused on being a useful member of family and community.</p> <p dir="ltr">“A big part of that is being free of drugs and it’s about questioning how you associate with your family and loved ones and creating a very positive vision for yourself of your place in society, which is not only what the blokes here lack but what other blokes in general lack as well.”</p> <p dir="ltr">The centre’s creator Pastor Ross Pene said O’Keefe is doing “great” and said the former White Ribbon Australia chairman is taking on responsibilities. </p> <p dir="ltr">O’Keefe has been accused of grabbing a sex worker by the throat before punching her and pushing her to the ground.</p> <p dir="ltr">He has pleaded not guilty to all six, which included three counts of common assault, intentionally choking a person without consent, and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.</p> <p dir="ltr">The court heard that Mr O’Keefe claimed he was acting in self-defence after being attacked, though the complainant hasn’t been charged with any offences.</p> <p dir="ltr">O’Keefe will be reappearing in court in June to challenge a charge of breaching an apprehended violence order (AVO) against another complainant, and again in July to examine the evidence relating to the allegations of assault and choking.</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: Getty</em></p>

Caring

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How WWI soldiers stitched their lives back together through embroidery

<p><em><strong>Emily Brayshaw is a lecturer of Fashion and Design History, Theory and Thinking at the University of Technology Sydney.</strong></em></p> <p>Albert Biggs, a labourer from Sydney who enlisted in the <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/exhibitions/dawn/empire/aif/" target="_blank">Australian Imperial Force</a></strong></span> under the name Alfred Briggs, was 23 when he arrived in Gallipoli on 22 August 1915.</p> <p>Biggs, as part of the second reinforcements for the 20th battalion, fought to defend the Anzac trenches on the ridge known as Russell’s Top, from where the ill-fated 3rd Light Horse Brigade had launched their attack for the Battle of the Nek. His battalion was evacuated to Egypt in December 1915 and sent to the Western Front the following April.</p> <p>Biggs was awarded the Military Medal for “great initiative and bravery” at Lagnicourt on <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/REL45131/" target="_blank">15 April 1917</a></strong></span>, but he was severely wounded at the second battle of Bullecourt on 5 May. Shrapnel flew into his left knee, leaving it permanently fused, and his right humerus was shattered. This damaged the nerves in his arm so badly that he could scarcely use his <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/blog/2014/07/30/stitches-time-rehabilitation-embroidery-awm-collection/" target="_blank">right hand</a></strong></span>.</p> <p>Biggs spent nearly 12 months in hospital in Rouen, France, before being moved to the Tooting Military Hospital in London, where he was first encouraged to take up embroidery. He returned to Sydney in September 1918 and spent almost two years at the 4th Australian General Hospital at Randwick (where the Prince of Wales Hospital stands today), and convalescent homes. He was discharged from the army in 1920.</p> <p>Biggs was one of more than <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/ww1/" target="_blank">156,000 Australian men</a></strong></span> who were wounded, gassed, or taken prisoner during the first world war. Like many of his comrades, however, it is also likely that he suffered from some form of <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://theconversation.com/from-shell-shock-to-ptsd-a-century-of-invisible-war-trauma-74911" target="_blank">shell shock</a></strong></span>.</p> <p>Many of the hospitals tending the wounded during and after the War provided bright, clean, quiet environments where the men could perform meditative, transformative work that was essential to their rehabilitation from their physical and mental wounds.</p> <p>One such activity was embroidery, also known as “fancy work”. Embroidery was <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://academic.oup.com/jdh/article-abstract/doi/10.1093/jdh/epw043/2333849/The-work-of-masculine-fingers-the-Disabled?redirectedFrom=fulltext" target="_blank">widely</a></strong></span> used as a form of therapy for British, Australian, and New Zealand soldiers wounded in the War - challenging the gendered construct of it as “women’s work” that was <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://journalofmoderncraft.com/category/table-of-contents/page/4" target="_blank">ubiquitous</a></strong></span> throughout the 19th century.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img width="237" height="372" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/37895/embroidery-in-text-1.jpg" alt="Embroidery In Text 1 (1)"/></p> <p style="text-align: center;" align="center"><em>Embroidery depicting a French farmhouse, stitched by 2626 Private William George Hilton. Image credit: Australian War Memorial.</em></p> <p>Hospitals in England, France, Australia, and New Zealand all offered embroidery therapy and important examples of the soldiers’ work can be found in places such as the <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://allthatremains.net.nz/2014/09/recuperation-new-trades-and-crafts-aid-recovery/" target="_blank">TePapa Museum</a></strong></span> in Wellington, New Zealand, the Australian War Memorial Museum and St Paul’s Cathedral in London, where the beautiful embroidered <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/stpaulslondon/sets/72157645431808070/" target="_blank">Altar Frontal</a></strong></span> was created by <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www.stpauls.co.uk/history-collections/history/ww1/the-men-of-the-altar-frontal" target="_blank">wounded</a></strong></span> soldiers from the UK, Australia, Canada, and South Africa.</p> <p>Themes of the soldiers’ embroidery ranged from military heraldry to scenes from the French countryside to pieces for their sweethearts.</p> <p>The 4 AGH in Randwick had vast recreation facilities to help with soldiers’ rehabilitation and occupational therapy. Staff encouraged Biggs to resume embroidery to pass the time and develop the fine motor skills in his left hand.</p> <p>Individual embroidery was an excellent past-time for the wounded soldiers; it is a small, flat, quiet, intimate activity that can be conducted seated, either in a group or alone. The classes at 4 AGH were taught by volunteers and, as Lieutenant Colonel CLS Mackintosh noted, helped the patients, <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-5244279/view?partId=nla.obj-5249236#page/n49/mode/1up/search/craft" target="_blank">“to forget that they have any great disability.” </a></strong></span></p> <p>The Australian War Memorial holds at least four examples of Biggs’ embroidery. One, which he completed while at the hospital in Randwick, shows a cushion with the 1912 Australian coat of arms sewn in stem, long, and satin stitch onto a black background.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img width="498" height="530" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/37896/embroidery-in-text-2_498x530.jpg" alt="Embroidery In Text 2"/></p> <p style="text-align: center;" align="center"><em>The full cushion bearing the Australian coat of arms sewn by Albert Biggs. Image credit: Australian War Memorial.</em></p> <p>From what we know about Biggs’ service, we can surmise that this choice of embroidery pattern was bound to a constancy in his identity throughout his army experiences. Once a labourer, the war had made him a soldier, a war hero, and an invalid but he remained, above all, Australian.</p> <p>Biggs’s niece transformed several pieces of his embroidery into cushion covers. The back of the coat of arms cushion features six colourful, embroidered butterflies. The butterfly is a Christian symbol of hope and of the resurrection, because of its three stages of life. The butterfly is also associated with Psalm 119:50, “This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.”</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img width="497" height="475" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/37897/embroidery-in-text-3_497x475.jpg" alt="Embroidery In Text 3"/></p> <p style="text-align: center;" align="center"><em>Six multi-coloured butterflies embroidered on the back of the cushion cover decorated with the Australian coat of arms by Lance Corporal Alfred Briggs (Albert Biggs), 20 Battalion, AIF. Image credit: Australian War Memorial.</em></p> <p>Biggs also created a piece with <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/REL45129/" target="_blank">six gold daisies and four sprays of red berries</a></strong></span> and a <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/REL45132/" target="_blank">piece</a></strong></span> with a King’s crown with crossed Union flag and Australian ensign, all within a laurel wreath. A scroll bearing the words, “For England home and beauty” sits above the piece; and a scroll reading “Australia will be there” below, but the rest of the pattern is <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/REL45132/" target="_blank">unfinished</a></strong></span>.</p> <p>Creating these delicate works was a great achievement for Biggs as the skill would have taken him years to master; it is not unlike a right-handed person learning to write again neatly with their left hand.</p> <p>The soldiers’ work also created economic opportunities. Their embroidery and other ornaments were sold at the Red Cross Hospital Handicrafts Shop in Sydney where visitors were <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-38800899/view?partId=nla.obj-38810582#page/n34/mode/1up/search/fancy+work" target="_blank">encouraged to</a></strong></span> “purchase the work of returned soldiers to help them help themselves”. The Red Cross also supplied printed templates for embroidery, many of which bore patriotic messages, such as the piece that Biggs left uncompleted.</p> <p>One hundred years later, the story of Biggs’ bravery in Gallipoli and France has been stitched into the broader <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://creativeapproachestoresearch.net/wp-content/uploads/CAR6_2_FULL1.pdf" target="_blank">“mythscape”</a></strong></span> that surrounds Anzac Day. His embroidery, however, speaks to us of the quiet courage and dignity of Australia’s soldiers as they tried to mend their shattered lives following World War I.</p> <p>And interestingly, two recent studies have helped articulate the rationale for rehabilatation embroidery. <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://experts.umn.edu/en/publications/everyday-creative-activity-as-a-path-to-flourishing" target="_blank">One</a></strong></span> has demonstrated that undertaking everyday craft activities is associated with emotional flourishing, revealing the importance of handcrafts to their makers. <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://journalofmoderncraft.com/category/table-of-contents/page/4" target="_blank">Another study</a></strong></span> has shown that embroidery and sewing can allow individuals to work through mental trauma associated with war.</p> <p>Highlighting the practice of rehabilitation embroidery gives us new ways to remember Biggs and the 416,809 Australian men who served in WWI. The stories they stitched into their embroidery allow us to remember them as we grow old.</p> <p><em>Written by Emily Brayshaw. First appeared on <strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation.</a></span></strong></em><img width="1" height="1" src="https://counter.theconversation.edu.au/content/76326/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" alt="The Conversation"/></p>

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