Inside Out: An Indigenous Community Radio Response to Incarceration in Western Australia

Abstract

An Indigenous prison requests show in Perth, Western Australia, Inside Out has emerged as a response to the disproportionately high incarceration rates of Indigenous people in the state and is the most popular show on the community broadcaster Noongar Radio, airing across twelve prisons with more than 270 requests per week. Incorporating interviews and analysis of language and music, this article will discuss how Aboriginal people in Western Australia use Inside Out as a shared communicative resource to assist in upholding their connections to family, community, and Country, connections that can be central to Aboriginal Australian social and emotional well- being but are most often impeded by incarceration. Using language and music—mostly country music—to enact Aboriginal cultural and social connectedness, Inside Out serves vital community concerns not addressed by commercial broadcasting, while also creating representations of Aboriginal culture for non-Aboriginal listeners.