Dreaming Inside: Voices from Junee Correctional Centre is in its 11th year of producing anthologies of writing from First Nations inmates at Junee Correctional Centre, overseen by Aunty Barbara Nicholson to help inmates in improving their literacy skills, and to enhance self-esteem, cultural awareness and the ability to understand their own feelings.
Special guest, Tom Calma, is a former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner and the Race Discrimination Commissioner. He is currently Chancellor of Canberra University, co-chair of the Senior Advisory Group of the Indigenous Voice to Government and co-chair of Reconciliation Australia.
Tom Calma AO (Australian)
Tom Calma AO is a human rights and social justice campaigner, and 2023 Senior Australian of the Year. A Kungarakan Elder and member of the Iwaidja tribal groups, Tom is Chancellor of the University of Canberra and member of the Indigenous Voice to Government Referendum Working Group and co-chair of Reconciliation Australia and the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation. He’s a former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner and Race Discrimination Commissioner, and one of the first proponents of and advocate for justice reinvestment in Australia.
Aunty Barbara Nicholson (Australian)
Aunty Barbara Nicholson is an Elder of the Wadi Wadi people of the Illawarra region. She is project leader of the Black Wallaby Writers and Chief Editor of Dreaming Inside: Voices from Junee Correctional Centre. She is a poet, activist, recipient of numerous awards in Aboriginal Education, a published academic, university lecturer and has taught course work to inmate students at Goulburn Gaol and JCC. She holds a degree in English Literature (Newcastle) and an Honorary Doctorate of Laws (UOW).
