Almost a decade since the release of her debut album, the Southland-born musician was recognised for her work as tutor of The Kowhai Project, an immensely successful rehabilitative programme for inmates at Otago Correction Facility (OCF).
She said the recognition was a chance to celebrate the progress made since the project’s inception, which she said would not have been possible without the backing of Corrections or the buy-in of prisoners.
While jail protocol and the lingo used by those inside took some getting used to, Mac said it had been rewarding work.
“It feels a bit like home sometimes,” she said.
“I get so comfortable I have to remind myself it is a prison.”
The Kowhai Project is a 10-week programme, roughly half of which is made up songwriting, a quarter devoted to the ukulele and quarter to singing.
The intense final four weeks is spent recording songs using her mobile studio.
Mac also runs a condensed version at Invercargill Prison a couple of times a year.
“I try to keep music as something you can use, as a way to work through things or make fun of things,” she said.
Not even the Covid-19 lockdown was enough to stop her.
Mac used the time away to compile a CD of 37 songs that had been recorded by those under her tutelage, which was released in March.
OCF learning and interventions delivery manager Sherie Lucke said the course had been a valuable rehabilitative tool.
“Men on the programme go well outside their comfort zone. The skills and confidence participants develop is amazing, and usually no-one is more amazed by what they have achieved than the men themselves.”
