This partnership includes researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) School of Nursing, Indigenous Elders,  Peer Leaders with lived and living experience of incarceration, and champions from the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC).

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve been gifting art and writing kits to people in prison, and inviting them to share their work, voice and vision with us and the world. Each kit contains art and writing supplies, Indigenous teachings and medicines, messages of support from our team, and creative writing, visual art, and poetry prompts, including example poems from one of the Elders on our team.

Our team recognizes that historic and ongoing colonialism are foundational to the current Canadian prison system. We know that Indigenous Peoples face immense health and social inequities, and that these are linked to disproportionate and unjust encounters with the prison system. In this context, we see art as a way to build community and dream a better world. Consent, autonomy and intellectual property rights are important to us, so participants can also choose not to share or digitize their work.

Content of kit supplies. Photo by Nicole Mah.

We believe that art and writing are powerful tools of connection and social change. Individuals who receive a kit are invited to share their art and writing with us and with other participating storytellers and artists. They are also invited to take part in research program to help us learn how to strengthen and sustain the program over time. This research is Participatory (meaning we centre the voices and wisdom of experts, people who are or have been incarcerated), Action (meaning we believe research should do something positive) Research, with people who have survived prison working with us as Leaders, Advisors and Colleagues.