Northern Institute
Making the Invisible Visible: Creative Justice Reform and Prison Education
| Presenter | Associate Professor Adelle Sefton-Rowston | |
|---|---|---|
| Date/Time |
to
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| Contact person |
Northern Institute
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| Location |
Level 3, Room 08 Danala | Education and Community Precinct 54 Cavenagh Street, Darwin City, NT 0800 |
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| Open to | Public | |
About the Seminar:
Since the one-year anniversary of Kumanjayi White’s death in custody on 27 May, this seminar is a timely and urgent call for justice reform and education in the Northern Territory. Since his death, there have been four more deaths in custody and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has been denied visits to NT prisons. Making the Invisible Visible puts forward the invaluable ways that research in the creative arts and humanities shifts understandings of justice and education for safer communities. Based on interviews with justice affected people and those working in the justice system, this seminar will share insights into creative justice reform through the methodological framing of ‘story work’ and the theoretical workings of meliorism in policy reform. Audience members will be introduced to the Incarceration Nations Network Global Freedom Consultants initiative, and the Ywrite prison project, transforming the material design of prison here in the NT. At the end of the seminar there will be open discussion on how to reimagine communities that do not disappear people.
About the Presenter:
Adelle Sefton-Rowston designs and facilitates creative arts workshops for incarcerated people in Darwin, Townsville, and Alabama. She publishes research on the creative contributions incarcerated people make to reforming the system of criminal punishment, and how education creates more human societies progressive enough to dismantle archaic models of the penal colony. Sefton-Rowston has delivered several talks on creative justice reform, including Bard Prison Initiative’s Lecture Series, New York, UNESCO Prison Education Conference, Montreal, and TEDx, Darwin. In 2026 she was selected to attend the Incarceration Nations Network launch of Global Freedom Consultants in Cape Town, South Africa – a collective of 30 leaders with lived experience offering their expertise on project management, research, and policy reform.
Registration for the event:
In-person: RSVP here
Please RSVP here to attend in person—limited seating.
Online registration: Register here
Once you register, you will receive an individual link from Microsoft Teams.
Getting there:
Level 3, Room 08,
Danala | Education and Community Precinct
54 Cavenagh Street, Darwin City, NT 0800
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