Using a music jam session to work through emotions.
(Sounds of guitar and ukulele and singing)
For many years, Fabiann Brochelle has lived by the word Maybe.
"Remembering the word 'maybe'. Maybe tomorrow might be different, maybe tomorrow I might get that call back, maybe my family might contact me. I live by maybe that someone might give. Tomorrow might be a better day. I lived by that for a long time."
Today one of her dreams is no longer a maybe: she's preparing to see her four-year-old nephew for the first time since going to jail.
"I had to be the best version of myself to be able to stand in front of him and be an aunty. And be a role model to him. To be somebody who he can look up to as someone who is going to be there. So when I got out, I didn't see him when I first went back. I reconnected with mum. And I am going back today to show him his first ukulele and teach him how to play his first chord."
Learning to play the ukulele during her stint in the Adelaide Women’s Prison with Barkindji singer-songwriter Nancy Bates has shone a light in what she describes as a negative place.
"Having Songs Inside gave me the confidence and the self-worth to overcome so much that I went through in my childhood. If I can help somebody else who has had a harder life, it's worth it. A lot needs to change to help down the rates women re-offending and being incarcerated."
The four-month Songs Inside program - documented in a film to be released later this year - aims to help stop vulnerable women returning to prison.
Nancy says the initial focus of the Indigenous-led initiative was on reducing the rates of Indigenous female incarceration - this time, the program was opened to all female inmates.
"Women who have been impacted by incarceration. That is what this is all about. Amplifying their voices. Because every Australian woman is vulnerable to incarceration. (All it takes is) One sliding door moment, violence in the home you've reacted to, drug and alcohol addiction. Things that require healing and health interventions."
(Excerpt of "What love is" song)
This song - What Love Is - was written in prison about the inmates' experience of abuse.
Two of the women who participated in the songwriting program will perform alongside Nancy in front of thousands of people at an Australia Day concert, backed by the Adelaide Youth Orchestra.
Jan Chorley is the CEO of the Australia Day Council of South Australia.
"Women who’ve made significant decisions to turn their lives around. And what an amazing opportunity for them to proudly work with - alongside - the Adelaide Youth Orchestra in this beautiful performance to say: this is our future, this is who we are."
Fabiann hopes to use the platform to call for more supports for women once they're released from jail.
"Within the first month - and the three months leading up to that - your chances of reoffending and going back are huge. And so many people do that as an easier option. It shouldn’t be easier option to go back to jail because of the lack of supports."
For Nancy Bates, singing at an Australia Day event, in the aftermath of the failed Voice referendum, will be one of the hardest performances of her life.
She says she ultimately decided to do it to elevate the voices of other women - many who remain unheard and invisible.
"As a woman who hasn't been incarcerated - as a First Nation woman to provide platform to amplify the voices of women who have had an experience of prisons. To put the Songs Inside project and what we're trying to do together front and centre in the minds of South Australians. These are the opportunities. It's not a celebration for me. It is a responsibility to utilise my privilege. The privilege I have as a performer in the industry to give those women an opportunity to shine. And for this project to get up and out."
