For the past 8 months, MakeShift have been engaged by NSW Juvenile Justice to run a weekly creative first aid program in Reiby Juvenile Justice Centre.

The young people there are aged between 11-17 and come with complex experiences of trauma, addiction, illness.

We asked acclaimed rapper, artist, musician and proud Yuin and Thunghutti man Nooky if he'd be interested in working with the young people on bringing storytelling, writing, music and recording experiences to them over a series of weeks and months.

"Over the years, I've found that the microphone is a pretty good listener. It listens to you and it takes all that pain off you, it takes that weight off you." - Nooky

Spending an hour each with boys, then girls, Nooky and MakeShift invited young people to explore song-writing, rapping and recording tracks where they have the opportunity to share their creations.

The outcomes have been astounding. A young man who had never engaged with any of the programs in the Centre wrote, edited, recorded and performed his own rap. Some of the young women wrote powerful tales of their sorrow at being in detention, and their hopes for the future. The power of music as a release and act of storytelling was made so starkly true.

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