3CR Beyond the Bars

Beyond the Bars is a project founded by 3CR Community Radio in Melbourne in 2001-2002. Its purpose is to give voice to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community members within the Victorian prison system and to include them in the annual National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee (NAIDOC) celebrations. The project is a series of live radio broadcasts featuring the voices, songs, poetry, opinions and conversations with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Victorian prisons.

Singer-songwriter, broadcaster and Mutti Mutti man Kutcha Edwards, and Aboriginal broadcaster and community advocate the late Gilla McGuinness helped found the program and drive its annual presentation. A large number of First Nations broadcasters have contributed as broadcast presenters during the annual radio project.

This collection consists of promotional posters, CDs, and CD covers from 2002-2020 of the Beyond the Bars program. The posters were displayed in and around greater Melbourne and online, to promote the annual project. The CDs include highlights from the Beyond the Bars live programming and are produced after each annual broadcast. This collection contains CDs from 2004 (the first year of CD production) through to 2020.

This collection was digitised by the University of Melbourne Digitisation Centre as part of a collaborative project with 3CR, Liz Dean from the School of Social and Political Sciences and the Melbourne Social Equity Institute. The project continues to be designed and delivered by 3CR Community Radio each year.

For more information about the Beyond the Bars program, please visit:https://www.3cr.org.au/beyondthebars