Rehabilitative needs and treatment of Indigenous offenders in ...

elated to culture…and someone from the [local Indigenous]community can talk about what goes on…[Indigenous facilitators] relate to our pain, suffering, hardship, if notbeen there or have family members who find life hard.…it’s easier to listen to an Indigenous person talking about culturalissues than coming from the white man.They know black fella’s background if they come from a communitythey should understand there’s a bigger picture to our problems.Indigenous facilitators were also perceived to be in a better position to haveaccess to and share knowledge about Indigenous heritage and language.One Indigenous offender commented:Some of us grew up not knowing about our backgrounds andbeliefs…Indigenous facilitators would know culture and history.It was understood that Indigenous facilitators could ‘translate’ Western worldviews and program concepts in a way that was meaningful to Indigenousparticipants. This is evident in the following:…most Indigenous can’t read and write or [have a] problemunderstanding English…[Indigenous facilitators] can explain it andword it appropriately..QCS staff and service providers also acknowledged the role Indigenous staffhave in liaising between Indigenous offenders and mainstream services:Murri faces in counselling are important as many Indigenousoffenders don’t trust non-Indigenous counsellors and men can’t talkto women counsellors about ‘men’s business’.Although ISDR participants recognised that there are several advantagesassociated with the delivery of offender programs by Indigenous facilitators, itwas also acknowledged that it could be difficult to recruit and retain suitablyqualified Indigenous persons to implement rehabilitation interventions. Anumber of strategies was suggested as ways to develop the skills ofIndigenous staff and overcome the limited availability of Indigenous programfacilitators. This includes the involvement of local Indigenous communitymembers in program delivery and developing the capacity of existing CulturalLiaison Officers (CLOs) employed by QCS.The possible role community members could play in the delivery of offenderprograms is evident in the following:We need a good mix of people to deliver services and programs,that is, men and women. Probation and Parole don’t have any maleor Indigenous staff…we use local Indigenous people to help cofacilitatethe program and to work with offenders while they are onan order.59