Episode 4, Art Inside
Weaving healing stories with Jess Maclean
Transcript
Neil Wallace:
Kia ora koutou katoa. Ko Neil Wallace ahau. Ko te tautoko i nga mahi toi i roto i te Whare Hireire taku kaupapa. Kaiarahi a Toi Arapoutama ko taku mahi mo Putanga Toi ki Aotearoa. Kia ora whanau. Welcome to Art Inside, the seven part audio series brought to you by Arts Access Aotearoa. The arts, painting, music, whakairo, dance, writing, kapa haka, theatre, connect and heal us. They help us see the world through each other's eyes. They teach us creative problem-solving and innovation, which we can apply to the many layers of our lives. In this series, we meet artists who teach arts to people in New Zealand prisons. We also meet former prisoners whose lives have been transformed through the arts.
My name is Neil Wallace and I am the Kairahi a Toi Ara Poutama Mo Putanga Toi ki Aotearoa, the Arts and Corrections Advisor for Arts Access Aotearoa. Haere mai and welcome. Please join us on this hikoi to better understand art inside.
[INTRO MUSIC: Halftime Groove]
Neil Wallace:
Kia ora koutou katoa whānau. Today we have the honour of having Jess Maclean (Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Hine, Clan O’Hara and Clan Maclean) with us. Jess is a lecturer in Māori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Canterbury. Jess works with two toi practitioners to deliver the Awe Māreikura programme in Christchurch Women's Prison. This is one of the programmes in the Creative Arts and Cultural Wellbeing Prison Initiative, a partnership between Manatū Taonga and Ara Poutama Aotearoa, representing an investment of $3 million into 13 arts programmes to be delivered over three years.
Jess is a writer of creative non-fiction and a poet. She brings a wealth of research and knowledge of the criminal justice system. Kia ora, Jess. How are you?
Jess Maclean:
Kia ora, Neil. It's a pleasure to be here today. Thanks so much.
Neil Wallace:
The honour's all ours. Can I kick us off with an initial question? Can you tell us about yourself and your team and what motivates your delivery of the arts programmes to a women's prison?
Jess Maclean:
Sure, so I'll start by introducing Christine Harvey and Tōmairangi Taiepa who I work with. Christine has Moriori, Ngāti Mutunga, Te Ātiawa ki Te Tau Ihu; Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Kāti Māmoe and Kāi Tahu whakapapa.
She's been an artist and practitioner since the 1990s and has been involved in the revitalisation of lots of traditional Māori artforms, including tā moko, whakairo, carving and rāranga. She's kind of famous, she's appeared in a number of books. Books and TV shows, with lots of published interviews as well.
And she's also a board member for the Hokotehi Trust for her Moriori Imi, or Iwi. So she brings governance experience, as well as being a cultural advisor. And her daughter, Tōmairangi, has Tūhoe, Moriori, Ngāti Mutunga, Te Ātiawa ki Te Tau Ihu; Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Kāti Māmoe whakapapa. She's Christine's apprentice, um, as well as being an artist in her own right with a number of exhibitions under her belt, as well as being a tā moko practitioner. So I feel really grateful to be able to do this mahi, these two amazing wāhine. For myself, my experience in preparing section 27 cultural reports, which are used to inform sentencing, has given me a lot of firsthand knowledge about the experiences that bring people into prisons, and alongside my teaching into the Bachelor of Criminal Justice. I guess I felt inspired to want to make some direct contribution to those in the criminal justice system. So I've known Christine for some years, we met in maybe 2015 when she did some tā moko for me, and it's kind of addictive, so I've been back to her lots of times for that.
And we've developed a friendship from there. And so when Manatū Taonga, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage and Ara Poutama put the call out for applications for the initiative, we decided to apply. We're all really passionate about the healing and rehabilitative potential of the arts. And we're also aware that most programmes are designed in the context of men's prisons.
So we wanted to devise something specifically for women.
Neil Wallace:
Amazing. Amazing. Can you tell us about the Awe Māreikura programme and the participants response within it?
Jess Maclean:
So our programme is premised on the inherent mana of women. Our programme name references Māreikura, which are celestial feminine entities that attend Io in the heavens and acted as messengers to all realms in creation.
It's also a word used to describe women of noble descent, which we argue is all women. And so we choose artforms that are typically associated with women and feminine deities, such as working with uku or clay, which comes from Hine Ukurangi. We work with tukutuku or latticework that often adorns marae.
We do rāranga, or weaving, using harakeke that Christine, Tom and I harvest but is processed during our programme. And we also work with materials such as kokowai, which is a traditionally used red earth pigment that's associated with the creation of the first human being, Hineahuone. We also incorporate visual media, such as printmaking, drawing, and painting.
And there we encourage wāhine to connect with Māori cultural values, such as connections to maunga and wherever they're from. And so we try to incorporate whakapapa kōrero and pūrākau, or oral traditions, that relate to the art forms and the materials that we use. So, in the unit, we work with a range of women, largely but not exclusively Māori, who have been sentenced for a variety of things.
So some have really lengthy sentences, and others are not in prison for long. Because there are only three women's prisons, it means that women are often located away from their families. and can be moved around a bit, and research shows that involvement with the justice system is intergenerational, so children with at least one parent in prison are more likely to go on to offend themselves, and because primary caregivers tend to be women, there is evidence to suggest that impacts on children are more severe when the parent in prison is a mother.
So for us, it's about trying to make a change to break that cycle. We recognise that changing women's lives can often have cascading impacts, positive impacts on their whānau.
Neil Wallace:
Jess, with regards to tikanga, do you, or have you ever, run up against any constraints within the justice system that you have managed to navigate? And what would your advice be to potential providers in this space?
Jess Maclean:
That's a really good question. Working in prisons is definitely specialised in the sense that, for example, when doing weaving or rāranga, there are particular, um, rituals that should be incorporated when harvesting harakeke. Ideally, we would have wanted to be able to take the women to do the harvesting so that they could learn some of these rituals, but that would have been too difficult to arrange and so we had to kind of modify things so that Christine, Tōmairangi and I would collect the harakeke according to tikanga and then bring it into the unit for processing.
And so I think it requires flexibility and adhering to the spirit of tikanga, if not always the letter of it, if that makes sense.
Neil Wallace:
Yeah, that really does. It's really good to know. I've spoken with providers who are nervous about such things and may not be as connected with iwi and hapū as they like. So in some situations they can find themselves in a spot of bother with regards to what to uphold and how far to push and in those spaces.
So your words there are really really valuable. Thank you. What does your programme achieve?
Jess Maclean:
There are three main things that we really wanted to achieve with the programme. The first being pretty practical, so to provide opportunities for learning practical skills in a range of different artforms. Not everyone has had the privilege of access to this type of learning before and particularly for those who didn't complete school, we wanted there to be a strong practical foundation to the work that we do.
Another major goal of ours was to support wāhine inside in either developing or strengthening a sense of cultural identity. Again, this is something that not everyone has had the opportunity to experience. And there's a lot of research to suggest that having a secure cultural identity can act as a protective factor, in all sorts of ways, but in particular with regards to mental health.
And so providing opportunities for engaging with oral traditions, whakapapa and so on, has been important for us. And finally, we really wanted the programme to instill a sense of self-esteem and pride in people. I think having an experiential basis of success is really important, and so to provide people with the opportunity to envision something, plan it out, and then actually execute the plan, we think is really helpful.
And the comments that we've had suggest that there's been a lot of benefit from that.
Neil Wallace:
Fantastic. If we could, could we dive a little deeper into what you were talking about with regards to whakapapa? I know, because I'm into whakapapa and genealogy as a practice myself, that it can be challenging.
To assist others with theirs, is this something that you navigate regularly? And if so, would you give us some hints and tips in this space?
Jess Maclean:
That's a good question for a number of reasons. So firstly, I think the 2018 census suggested that about one in six Māori people don't know their whakapapa. They know that they are Māori, but they don't know where they come from and so this can complicate matters in terms of creating a tribal identity.
However, we think that emphasising a whakapapa connection all the way back to Rangi and Papa, the primal parents, is a safe and appropriate way to go about that. There's also the fact that for some people there is trauma associated within the family unit, and that too can complicate discussions of whakapapa, and so we again try to emphasise that connection back to Rangi and Papa, that whakapapa makes you Māori. And so we, we try and support that for others.
They're aware that they may whakapapa to a particular iwi. For example, there's a wahine in our programme at the moment who's really just beginning her journey to herself and she whakapapas to Ngai Tahu. We've been doing a tukutuku block, and we presented a resource that has been designed from a range of different areas. There's one particular design that relates to Aoraki, the ancestor mountain of Ngai Tahu And this really inspired her. It helped her to feel a tangible connection and she went on to incorporate that design and some of the work that she did.
Neil Wallace:
That's truly wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing. Can we also dive a little deeper into what you were talking about with regards to Pūrākau and how participants can engage in them, how Arts in Corrections educators can share them, and what learnings take place in that space?
Jess Maclean:
Sure, so we talk about Pūrākau in the sense of Māori cosmology, the origin of the world and of humans. And so for one example, we look at Hine Tītama, who was the Dawn Maiden, the daughter of Hineahuone. And long story short, she finds out that her husband, Tāne, is also her father. And this causes her to become Hine-nui-te-po, and she leaves the physical realm and goes to Rarohenga, where she says that she will safeguard the spiritual wellbeing of people.
And so we just kōrero that through, what are the themes associated with this? And one of the wāhine said in response to this discussion that to her, Hine-nui-te-po represents setting boundaries. and asserting your own mana about what you're prepared to accept and what you're not. And so these types of kōrero can be relatively formal, in the sense of being delivered kind of didactically or sort of lecture style, but What's better is to allow the conversation to flow and allow people to sort of form their own connections with particular themes.
So we really emphasise what are the themes that these entities or that these deities represent and how can we connect to them in our own lives in the present.
Neil Wallace:
Yeah, that's really powerful stuff. I don't know if you know, but I personally, I'm tackling a master's investigating as a means to increase the efficacy of pedagogy.
So this is really on the spot for me personally, and I thank you for sharing.
Jess Maclean:
I think I'd add that Pūrākau, when they're generated by individuals, gives people the chance to express themselves, and having a narrative way of describing one's experiences can be really helpful.
Neil Wallace:
Absolutely. Okay, Jess, what does cultural competence mean for you in arts education within the castle system, and how do you ensure your programme is delivering through that lens?
Jess Maclean:
So cultural competence in the Corrections space requires particular things that I think sort of are specific to that context. It really does require an understanding of the colonial history of Aotearoa New Zealand, and how systemic factors such as alienation from land and other resources has led to entrenched social inequalities, as well as the impacts of systemic bias.
So all of these things have given rise to Māori over-representation in the justice system, and so we think that part of cultural competence in this space is understanding this context. In practice, at its heart, to us cultural competence is really about the ability to engage in culturally appropriate ways.
So having an understanding of key values and principles, such as manaakitanga, which is often understood to be hospitality, and it's true that it does incorporate the concept, but a more literal interpretation of manaakitanga is upholding the mana, the fundamental dignity of the other. And so keeping that.
First and foremost, when engaging with people in the prison system, you know, these are fully formed human beings that come into the system with a range of experiences, and so rather than viewing people through a pathologising lens, see them as the whole person.
Another important principle for us is whanaungatanga. So that's the act of building and maintaining relationships with others, and we think that these relationships have the potential to really underpin and unlock the healing potential that the arts have.
There's also a practical component, so cultural competence encompasses things such as introducing oneself by way of a mihi or a pepeha, and opening and closing sessions with karakia.
And I guess in the creative arts and prisons context, cultural competence also includes an understanding of and a respect for traditional knowledge and practices. So for us, you know, as I mentioned, Awe Māreikura represents the sacredness of women, and so cultural competence in our program entails the connection of artforms we teach with their whakapapa, and in particular the atua wāhine associated with them, in an effort to wake up or activate that sacredness within them.
We don't think that the divine component of people is something out there that needs to be acquired. It's already within us. And so a lot of it is relational but there are other components as well. We really affirm and acknowledge the reality of the spiritual dimension to existence. And karakia is one way that we can activate spiritual wellbeing and opening up a space. Dedicating it to a particular purpose, and really importantly, safely closing it off again.
Creative practices can ignite or connect with really deep emotions, and so karakia is one way that we can keep ourselves and everyone else safe as we work with whatever comes up. And so with karakia, in particular, we hope to encourage those in our programme to take up these practices in their own lives as a means of spiritual self-care.
Neil Wallace:
Amazing. Do Pākehā and Tau Iwi and Pasifika and others enjoy your programme and what might they gain from engaging with it?
Jess Maclean:
That's a really good question. I would say that Māori knowledge, practices and values hold benefit for everyone. I think principles like manaakitanga apply cross-culturally. However, we also encourage people within the programme to connect with their own cultures if they are not Māori.
Neil Wallace:
Awesome. Jess, what are three key things you're always mindful of when you're working with the wāhine?
Jess Maclean:
The first two things are pretty interrelated, and that is experiences of trauma and mental health and addiction. We know that there are various so-called drivers of crime that bring people into the criminal justice system but for women these tend to be a bit different.
So a recent strategy released by Ara Poutama contained some really disturbing stats, which is that 62 percent of women in prison have had both mental health disorders and substance disorders across their lifetime, compared to only 40 percent of men in prison. 52 percent of women in prison have suffered post-traumatic stress disorder across their lifetime in comparison to 22 percent of men.
44 percent of women in prison have experienced drug dependence disorders across their lifetime. 68 percent of women in prison have been the victim of family violence. 46 percent of women in prison have a lifetime alcohol dependence. And a shocking 75 percent of women in prison have had a diagnosed mental health condition in the past 12 months.
And so what this suggests to us is that we are dealing with people who have been profoundly offended against before any turn to criminal behaviour of their own. And this is not to diminish the agency that these women possess, nor to minimise the harm that their actions may have caused to others, but to recognise the often complex situations within which they exist.
And so rather than view women in our programme, you know, through a criminal pathologising lens, we keep in mind the fact that these are people that society has actually profoundly failed.
On a more hopeful note, the third thing that we always keep in mind when working with women in prison is the possibility of redemption and healing.
The reality is that these women will all at some point re-enter the community, and we believe that everyone has the capacity to heal, to improve their lives, and the lives of their whānau.
Neil Wallace:
Powerful stuff. Jess, how do you know you're making a difference? If I can be so bold. What are the measurables? What are the metrics?
What are the things that shore up your practice that you can go to funders with that you can say “Hey look, we've made this impact”. Because I think a lot of the people that work in this space need to understand how to do this in a better way.
Jess Maclean:
I think we all understand intuitively the benefits that creative arts can bring but from an institutional perspective, being able to validate those is really important.
And so, as part of the Creative Arts and Cultural Wellbeing in Prisons initiative, our programme is evaluated through an external evaluator, and we also complete our own annual reports. And as part of the annual reports that we produce, we interviewed some of the wāhine and we also take field notes in general.
Taking notes is good practice, so for those of us that are accustomed to having a device on us, obviously you're not allowed those in prison. And something might be clear in the moment but if your memory's anything like mine, it's not photographic. So taking notes is really important. Some of the feedback that we've gotten has helped to demonstrate to us that what we're trying to do is having some effect.
So one of the benefits that was noted by the wāhine was cultural identity. Kaupapa Māori programmes in general, or our programme in particular, provided the first opportunity that they'd actually had to connect with their culture.
And so some comments that we recorded include, “I don't learn F all about culture in the prison itself.” “I've learnt more from Christine than anyone.” “I wanted to come and learn about my culture but until recently there just haven't been any classes.”
For others, they already have a strong cultural identity and so our programme was an opportunity to develop that further and reinforce it. What did surprise us was how strongly the acquisition of practical skills was actually rated by wāhine in our programme.
Some mentioned having some previous experience but hadn't had any opportunities since. So some of the comments that were recorded were, “I love learning stuff, doing what I can't in my cell”. “I love coming to class and learning, practising stuff you don't get to do, even if you've done it ages ago.”
We were particularly heartened by the feedback we got from participants in relation to confidence and self-esteem.
There's so much latent talent in our prisons, and lots of women were really surprised by what they were capable of and really proud of what they had achieved. So some comments include, “I'm quite proud of that.” “I didn't know I could draw.” “That's better than I thought I could do.” “I'm really happy with it.” “I didn't even know I could draw and look at this painting.” And “who would have thought I could paint this?”
And so to see that sense of confidence grow is really encouraging. And finally, mental health benefits was something that came through really strongly in the feedback. Some comments included, “This gives me peace of mind and lets me reflect. I come here for the vibes, in a spiritual sense.”
“I've been an alcoholic for 26 years. This is like therapy, it's so therapeutic, it's hard to wait weekly for it. I've spent years and years with PTSD and I need to relearn feelings and not strategic thinking. Learn how to feel your feelings and to express them. This programme is the only thing I do with my feelings. It's the only thing I do with my heart and not my head.”
And so this kind of feedback is important for us as practitioners so that we understand that it's having a positive impact, but it's really important to be able to provide an evidential basis for what you're doing when applying for funding or when reporting to funders.
Neil Wallace:
Fantastic. And it sounds like you're making a huge difference where you are. We thank you for that. Do you want to continue and extend the programme and what are your hopes for the future?
Jess Maclean:
Absolutely we want to continue the programme. We feel so privileged to have the opportunity to do this kind of work.
Something that we're particularly proud of is at the moment we currently have an art exhibition featuring works created in our programme at Te Whare Tapere Art Gallery in Christchurch. This has been such an amazing opportunity to just show off the skills and the talents of the wāhine inside and being able to connect with the public has been so amazing.
And so one thing that we would like to continue is we'd like to run another exhibition before the funding runs out next year. And in terms of extending the programme, something we've given a lot of thought to is, if we are able to continue it, how we might be able to incorporate NZQA qualifications. On the NZQA books, there are currently a level 3 and a level 4 qualification in Mahi Toi, and Ara Poutama are accredited as NZQA qualification providers.
So if given the opportunity, that's one major way that we can see the programme being extended beyond what it currently is.
Neil Wallace:
What a huge impact that would make. Thank you so much Jess. It's been such a pleasure to talk with you today. Really appreciate your time and your wisdom.
Jess Maclean:
Neil, it's been my pleasure. Thank you so much for inviting me on to the podcast and providing this opportunity to talk about what it is that we do.
Neil Wallace:
The honour is again all ours. Thank you so much Jess. Ka kite.
