This four-year research project, in partnership with the Universities of Liverpool, Leeds, Tasmania, and Liverpool John Moores University, has explored the history and legacy of Australia’s most ‘crime-plagued’ areas. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), this research has informed a series of documentary films which offer a nuanced understanding of the complexities within these communities.
Professor Barry Godfrey, University of Liverpool, and Professor Paul Cooke, University of Leeds, worked with indigenous community groups to explore the history of imprisonment in Western Australia. The reality of modern Australia is that Indigenous people are 17 times more likely to be in prison that non-Indigenous Australians. This research investigates the history imprisonment of Indigenous Australians, looking into the causes and the legacy today.
Watch the documentary film
Roebourne from Paul Cooke on Vimeo.
In the far northwestern Australian town of Roebourne lies an abandoned gaol. Previously used as a tool of colonisation, containing hundreds of Aboriginal people from around the Pilbara, the authorities now plan to re-open it as a heritage asset. This film explores how local people feel about their awful history being packaged for predominantly white tourists passing through; and asks, if not tourism, what can be done to help the people of Roebourne?
Dramatic scenery and blistering heat forms the background for local debates under shady trees, outside the Pilbara Aboriginal Church, and inside the Old Gaol. Elders discuss what lies ahead for their children and grandchildren, and how their culture (and their land) can be preserved in the shadow of thundering land-trains filled with mineral ore transporting the wealth outside of traditional owner’s lands.
The film documents the lives of people living in in northern Western Australia today, and the attempts of heritage bodies to capture their experiences (in collaboration with the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage, local communities and Aboriginal Elders).
Watch the trailer
These films were offically launched in Australia and the United States in May 2024 and aim to raise awareness of the lived experiences of Indigenous prisoners, and the legacies left behind.
The colonial legacies of crime, racist policing, and the over-imprisonment of indigenous people were also explored in films - A Long Way to Go and The Art of Fremantle Prison. Documentary film, 'Roebourne', received recognition from the ABC and The Guardian. The documentary was also awarded the best film on History/Social Movements at the Sydney Film Festival.
Our intention has been to explore the ways in which arts and humanities research can inform approaches to inclusive participatory decision-making, community engagement, co-production, and human rights. In all of our collaborations we have acknowledged the traditional owners of the land, paying respects to their Elders, past and present.
Back to: Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology