Abstract
The mass incarceration of Māori has occurred in an era of human rights. This chapter reflects on how human rights frameworks have provided an explicit acceptance of incarceration, and bolstered a notion of state sovereignty that is at deep odds with indigenous sovereignty. Asserting Indigenous rights, and ending the disproportionate imprisonment of Indigenous people, can only be achieved through significant social, economic, political and cultural shifts. This chapter outlines the importance of creative, intellectual, emotional and cultural thinking to understanding carceral logics and experiences. It draws upon poetry, including that of a young Māori woman currently imprisoned in New Zealand, to demonstrate how imaginative acts can expand our thinking beyond the prison and towards transformative change.
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McIntosh, T. (2018). Indigenous Rights, Poetry and Decarceration. In: Stanley, E. (eds) Human Rights and Incarceration. Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95399-1_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95399-1_12
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