Across the fields of applied theatre and prison theatre, there appears to be little analysis of aesthetics and aesthetic engagement for participants in prison-based participatory practices. This article presents a pragmatist aesthetic frame that I developed to analyse the experience of a drama programme I ran in a women's prison. This frame evolved alongside the practice, drawing largely from John Dewey's (1934) Art as Experience and a selection of contemporary scholars who, influenced by Dewey, work in the areas of aesthetics, ethics and education-most notably Richard Shusterman (2000, 2008) and David Granger (2006). I also incorporated narrative within this frame as an interpretive and expressive structure for experience, and a key element within my applied theatre practice. I began to conceive aesthetics in terms of an 'art of living', identifying a 'poetics of renewal' that informed the selfand world-creation of participants in the drama. I share this theoretical framework as a possible way to integrate the instrumental and the aesthetic in applied theatre theory and practice, specifically in a prison context. KEYWORDS aesthetics applied theatre participatory drama prison theatre somaesthetics women prisoners
Objective: To determine the mortality burden of rheumatic heart disease (RHD) in the Kimberley.
Methods:A retrospective medical record audit was conducted for patients identified by the Western Australian (WA) RHD Program as deceased between 2001 and 2010. Patients with documented evidence strongly suggesting or confirming RHD were included in the study. Crude and age-standardised death rates were calculated.Results: A total of 34 patients were identified as having RHD, 15 of whom died of RHDattributable causes and 93% of whom were Aboriginal. The most common causes of death were arrhythmias and heart failure. The mean age at death of Aboriginal people was 41 years. The age-standardised death rate in Aboriginal people attributable to RHD in the Kimberley was 12.5 per 100,000 people per year, which is 1.6 times the rate of Indigenous Australians nationally. RHD contributed to 342 potential life years lost over the 10-year period.Conclusion: RHD contributes to significant premature mortality and higher rates of death in Aboriginal people in the Kimberley, which is consistent with other areas of northern Australia. While the recent establishment of the WA RHD Program will endeavour to improve mortality and morbidity due to RHD in the Kimberley, further research and investment is needed to address this disease of socioeconomic disadvantage.
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