Influencing policy and the national discourse is central to Big hART’s projects.
Big hART’s layered approach emphasises the importance of evaluation and research. We actively try to make the evidence available to Government and other forums. Our projects create powerful art, and raise the issue to the general public. We build personal relationships with Government Ministers and advisers, then use the media in positive ways to draw attention to our evidence, impact and innovative approaches. Through this approach we promote generational change.
During a recent Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, Big hART presented a panel discussion at the Wheeler’s Centre examining incarceration rates and justice reinvestment – as an illustration of impact. The panel involved the business sector, Indigenous elders, young people, and Big hART workers.
This public forum was part of a strategy involving: MURRU Concert (songs written with prisoners in Roebourne Prison), which opened the festival in Federation Square, and Hipbone Sticking Out (the story of John Pat, whose death in a Roebourne police cell was a catalyst for the Royal Commission into Deaths in Custody). Big hART’s multiple festival presentations featured prominently in the media and added to the public discourse around these issues, assisting the campaign and lobbying.
The policy domain of Big hART projects is vital to driving long term change.