Issue 581 (March 2009) - Office of Marketing and Communications

Bringing the bard BEHIND BARSShakespeare’s work speaksto people from all walks oflife, as Dr Rob Pensalfiniknows first hand.The UQ linguistics lecturer and his wife Anneare leading an Arts Community Enhancement(ACE) program at the Borallon CorrectionalCentre, which will culminate in a performance atthe prison in May.Approximately 20 inmates are working with DrPensalfini and colleagues from the QueenslandShakespeare Ensemble (QSE) after a world-firstpilot program at Borallon in 2006.The project ties in with the work of theatrepractitioner and activist Augusto Boal andis among the first to fuse his theories andShakespeare in a prison context.Dr Pensalfini said ACE philosophy held thatviolent and other disruptive behaviour often aroseout of an inability to express negative thoughtsand emotions through appropriate means.“In Shakespeare’s works, players find themeans to express the very thoughts, feelings andsituations that are the most difficult to put intowords,” he said.“Shakespeare places his characters inextreme and disruptive situations, then demandsthey be extremely eloquent about the experience.“It is through the embodiment of these dramatictexts that detainees will most acutely be able toacknowledge and address rupture in their own lives.”Inmates and their families will participatein weekly workshops until May, choosing aShakespearean piece for performance thatreflects their realities and experiences.Twenty participants completed a five-dayintensive on Boal’s techniques at UQ Ipswichin February, including three QSE members whoare working at Borallon and several Indigenousperformers who hope to use the techniques intheir local communities.The ACE initiative is made possible by supportfrom Borallon staff, the QSE and Arts Queensland.– CAMERON PEGG“In Shakespeare’sworks, players find themeans to express thevery thoughts, feelingsand situations that arethe most difficult toput into words”Above: Dr Pensalfini during a performance at Borallon prison in 2006, and top, the theatre intensive held atUQ Ipswich last monthPHOTOS AMELIA DOWD JEREMY PATTENUQNEWS, MARCH 2009 ➔ 19TRACKINGTRAFFICKINGIn response to recent cases of humantrafficking in Far North Queensland,UQ researchers visited Townsvilleand Cairns to investigate and presentpreliminary findings at public forums.The TC Beirne School of Law’s HumanTrafficking Working Group, headed by DrAndreas Schloenhardt, has been workingwith government agencies, non governmentorganisations and advocacy groups to identifyand analyse reported and suspected cases ofhuman trafficking in Australia.Of particular interest were reports abouta married couple from Weipa, who recentlyappealed against their conviction for slaveryand sexual servitude offences. The couple wasconvicted of arranging the marriage of a womanfrom the Philippines, bringing her to Australiato work in their shop and as a domestic helperin their private home. When the woman arrivedin Australia, she was held in a Cairns motel forseveral days and repeatedly raped.The working group examines the patternand criminology of trafficking in persons,relevant criminal offences relating totrafficking in persons and sexual servitude,the immigration status and legal protectionprovided to both lawful and unlawful foreign sexworkers, and the effectiveness of governmentregulation of the sex industry in Australia in thiscontext.Based on these findings, the responseby national, state, and territory governmentswill be critically evaluated. Global initiativesand best practices to confront trafficking inpersons, especially those developed by theUnited Nations are drawn upon to proposerecommendations for policy change and lawreform.The project is a joint initiative of the TCBeirne School of Law at The University ofQueensland, and the Centre of InternationalRelations at The University of British Columbiain Vancouver, Canada.The public forums are supported by theQueensland Law Society.