Restorative justice refers to a way of responding to crime, or to other types of wrongdoing, injustice or conflict, that focuses primarily on repairing the damage caused by the wrongful action and restoring, insofar as possible, the well-being of all those involved. It reflects a more relational theory of justice because it emphasizes the restoration of respect, equality, and dignity to the relationships affected by wrongdoings. The primary aim of restorative practice is to address and repair harm; voluntarism – participation in restorative processes is voluntary and based on informed choice; and neutrality – restorative processes are fair and unbiased towards participants. Some routine practices of the juvenile justice system such as restitution, are consistent with a restorative justice principle, and some programs incorporate some aspect of the framework, such as teen courts.
the Aboriginal history, so has been affected differently by colonisation. The use of art as a medium to pass information from one generation to another has created the oldest continuous artwork tradition anywhere in the world, the oldest examples dating to over 40,000 years ago. Aboriginal artwork often represents animals, scenes from the Dreamtime, or aerial views of landscapes, like a map, in dot form. As Aboriginal communities were driven further from the areas they had traditionally inhabited, they were also separated from their masterpieces, and their cultural expression. The Aboriginal people went into self-exile in the central Australian desert, and by 1900 had largely been written out of the story of modern Australia, and certainly out of its art. In the 20th century this would begin to change. The artwork of Albert Namajira, when it was shown in art galleries in large Australian cities, captivated the public. Namatjira had been born in Hermannsburg, a tiny Aboriginal settlement 80 miles from Alice Springs, centred around a Lutheran settlement. Namajira taught himself to paint, producing watercolours of the landscape of the highest quality, some of which are now in the National Gallery of Australia. In 1957, Namatjira became the first Aboriginal person to be granted full Australian citizenship, and as such was entitled to buy alcohol. Naturally, he shared this with his friends and family, for which he was charged with supplying alcohol to indigenous Australians in 1958, and died within a few months of completing his punishment of hard labour. (2) Namatjira’s story epitomises the tragedy of the problems faced by the Aboriginal population as a whole, a race of people persecuted by foreigners in their own country.
Perhaps the best example of Aboriginal art is a piece produced by 43 Aboriginal artists from Arnhemland, who created their own memorial to mark the bicentenary of the arrival of the First Fleet in 1988. The piece consists of 200 intricately carved hollow log coffins, one to represent each year of European settlement. They are monuments to the hundreds of thousands of Aboriginal people who have died since 1788 at the hands of European colonisers.
Aboriginal people remain marginalised politically, socially, and economically, but not artistically. Traditional dot paintings are now some of the most prized art in Australia, with Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri’s painting ‘Warlugulong’ selling for a record $2.4 million at Sotheby’s in 2007 (14). Art is an escape for many aboriginal peo
