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[gentle instrumental music playing]

[man] It's not a cool thing.

It's not a fashionable thing.

You ask me about what I would say to people if they've never been to gaol…

what it would be like, and I've had a think about it.

Just laying there in my cell.

You're restricted in your movements. You're restricted in what you say.

You're restricted in everything.

So, it's a lot more than just not being able to go to the shop.

It's something you have to really adjust your life

and learn to be told what to do and when to do it.

You've got to be answerable to a really dogmatic system.

And it's just in the- will be, strategically designed

to supress what you have as an individual person.

And you've got to learn to be able to…

to cop, cop a lot of shit.

[gentle music playing]

[indistinct background chatter]

[Uncle Jack Charles voice over] Art remains as one of the most purest

and accessible ways of our people to connect with culture.

Those inside have not let the prison walls stole their creativity.

[gentle music continues]

The incarceration rate of our people is a national crisis.

Currently, Indigenous Australians make up less than three percent of the population,

but 27 percent of the adult prison population.

Our youth make up 55 percent of young people in custody.

And after 40 years of advocacy from the Victorian community,

prisoners can now sell their art through The Torch.

The money provides them with a chance on the outside.

But to what extent can our people truly find their culture

whilst behind bars?

[parrots screech in the background]

[unsettling music playing]

[indistinct conversation]

[Uncle Jack] Paul McCann has come to speak with Indigenous artists

about the upcoming Confined exhibition.

[Paul] Hello! It’s very dark in here.

[Christopher] Did you get onto Munnings? Did ya see Munnings?

Your Munnings?

Yeah. Here. Phil Munnings.

Oh yeah, Phil. Sorry, yeah.

Ooh!

-You say it. You say it. -I'll see him today.

[Uncle Jack] Christopher Austin is a Gunditjmara Keerraaywoorrong man.

He has spent 37 years within the youth and adult prison system.

His offending behaviour began with minor offences,

and eventually escalated to armed robberies.

It's in January,

at St. Kilda Town Hall, and it’s Indigenous art,

created by Indigenous prisoners and ex-prisoners.

It shows people out there that we’re not all just…

drug addicts, alcoholics and crooks and bad people, you know.

We have got something good in us, you know.

It gives you another direction to go down.

You don’t have to choose one way, you know?

Most people go straight back to crime,

go straight back to what they were doing when they come here.

You know, this does give you a new direction.

[indistinct background chatter]

[Christopher] There’s no exact plan at the start. It just…

as I'm painting, it just keeps coming.

It’s like I've got the two different frogs.

One’s just like painted normal, one’s got Koori designs in it,

just like my Mum and Dad.

Two different cultures.

And yeah, it’s using the bright colours. I like the colours.

[clap sticks]

[Paul] So I want to set two different prices.

I have to rub all this shit out. This crappy bit.

Yeah, um, just erase that out.

[Paul] So, um, for this one…

is there a specific price that you had in mind for that?

[Andrew] I don't know how to work the prices out on them.

[Paul] Give me one second.

How’s it going, Troy?

-How’re you goin, bruh? -Hey. Paul McCann.

Good to meet you.

Yeah, I've heard a lot about you in you know, getting into the art or whatever.

-Yeah. -So come out,

come down and suss what you're up to and what you want to put in for Confined eh?

-Yeah, cool -Yeah, you got something on the go?

-Yeah. -Let’s find a table,

bit of a spot, have a look.

[Uncle Jack] Troy Brabham is a Wemba Wemba man.

Troy states he has spent nine years within the prison system.

His offending behaviour is centered around violence, drug and alcohol addiction.

My connections, um, is my birthright through my father and my mother.

She um, I have Aboriginality stemming from both sides of my family.

But my connection to it is I've lived it all my life.

That’s… I know my Aboriginal side more than I know my white side of the family.

I was trained at the ABC, Crows Nest, 2003,

and I worked for most of the channels in Australia as a freelance photographer.

and I've worked for Reuters in Germany, the BBC in London, Canwest in Canada.

And now I'm here. [laughs]

The point is, even the best of us can muck up…

and come to grief, and end up in an institution like this,

where identity and hope and…

freedom to express your individualism is very much important.

Keep your sanity as well as to keep your belief…

that you're gonna get out, and you're gonna get back in society and

reinforcing the facts that we can do well, with a kinship.

-What’s the story behind it? -[Troy] Oh, that’s the Murray River.

-Murray, okay. -Snake Island, just off Swan Hill.

Okay, yep.

Yeah, growing up we used to swim out there as kids and shit and…

[Paul] Plenty of snakes, is there?

[Troy] Yeah. But that’s the Murray River there. That’s the banks.

-This is the bush… -[Paul] Yeah.

…outside in the sandhills and that.

With your art practice,

if there’s something you want to continue on the outside,

we do have a post-release program where we can send you art supplies,

no matter where you are, within the state of Victoria,

and just see how you're traveling. You know that way in creating more art,

you know, and staying out of trouble.

-We’d love to see you at the exhibition. -Yeah, well I'll be at the exhibition

because I'm out in 29 days.

Oh, okay. Awesome.

[Paul] Where’s everyone else?

Oh, hello. This is my cousin.

-Where’s your painting? -Yeah, I didn’t know. I'll go grab em all.

I've got two in the office there and I've kept the rest here.

Okay.

[gentle music playing]

The increasing incarceration rate of First Nations People

is economically unsustainable.

The average cost to lock someone up for a year in Australia

is 110,000 dollars.

Fifty eight percent of Indigenous Australians

return to jail within one year.

[critters chirp]

[wind howls]

[Uncle Jack] Robby Wirramanda has returned to Wergaia country

in North-Western Victoria.

He has served a four-year prison sentence for drug trafficking.

He was raised amongst poverty and domestic violence.

He began committing crime at the age of seven and using drugs by the age of 12,

although he is now sober.

[gentle music playing]

[Uncle Jack] Robby’s grandmother passed on her knowledge of art and culture to him

when he was a child.

During his prison sentence, he reconnected with his passion for art.

He is currently on parole.

[Robby] All good.

[man] This way a bit. That’s right.

We’re gonna do our first- first photo shoot, out at Lake Tyrell.

And then we’re going to take some in some sandhills as well.

But the first one is the most important.

We’re going to focus on is Lake Tyrell itself.

In the last probably eight to ten months,

this is all we’ve been doing is just…

working up to get this piece done on the lake.

On my grandmother’s country. Wegaia people.

And that’s the power of this piece, because,

Lake Tyrell was somewhere where our people used to go to collect energy.

[Robby] Hop in fellas.

[Troy] You step back and look at it.

That’s what I'm going through with my incarceration, too,

stepping back and looking at myself.

And seeing what I see with clearer perspective and clearer eyes.

It’s an emulation that I find with this.

And everything that’s rough in life, is rough like this,

but I'll be refining it and making it better.

I was physically violent.

[clears throat]

I was untrustworthy as a friend,

because mixed with my alcohol addiction at the time,

when I was younger, I was very off-tap.

I used to be quite physically violent and I learnt to box at a young age,

so I carried that through for my state of reasoning

which was quite unfair and quite abusive to any sort of,

and I was destructive to any sort of…

friendship or parallel of friendship that I might run with people,

or even loved ones and that, you know.

I look back on that as wasted time,

and wasted energy and me being in that much fear of self-loathing.

That was a conduit for it.

[Alex] Was your photography--

-Oh, yeah. -Yeah.

-[Alex] That's all. -Yeah.

-We’ll pick it up later. -Yeah, cool.

-I'll be back. -[Alex] You gotta get to the court.

-Gotta go and get this sorted. -[Alex] Yeah, good luck man.

Cheers.

I'm gonna be heard today. Find out if I've got extra time or not.

[indistinct chatter]

[gentle music playing]

[Christopher] Probably been in jail about 30 years.

-[Alex] How old are you? -[Christopher] Fifty four.

Started when I was 11.

[Uncle Jack] After being raised on a mission,

Christopher contracted the white man’s disease known as tuberculosis,

and was moved to the city for treatment.

He was first incarcerated at the age of 12.

[Christopher] Back then, I'd say for Koori kids,

if you went to court once or twice, that was determined they put you in there.

Made you a ward of the state for being uncontrollable.

Pretty scary at first, and yeah, pretty daunting.

It’s like taken away from everything you know, cos…

I think back then, too, there’d only be a couple of Koori kids there,

so you're getting taken right away from your culture, your people.

Never grew up with white people before, you know.

Next minute you've gotta live with everyone's white.

There was, like probably in the unit that I went to,

there wasn't another black kid there.

So it was like pretty bad. It was pretty scary.

[Uncle Jack] From here, Christopher’s 37-year cycle of incarceration began.

From the age of 12 to 46,

the longest Christopher spent in society was nine months.

He states that he was first exposed to drugs inside prison at the age of 17.

To this day, he is still struggling with addiction.

[Alex] When you think about your first few days outside of here…

-[Christopher] When I get out? -[Alex] Yeah.

I'll be with a four-year-old that just won’t leave me alone,

so I'll be pretty happy.

It’ll be alright. That’s part of it, too.

My Missus and that, nuh, saying, ‘I've gotta paint.’

I've always had lectures on it about painting outside.

Only coming to jail and paint. ‘You don’t paint outside.’

My Mum used to tell me that all the time.

Yeah, not coming back to jail. I know I'm not coming back to jail.

[Didgeridoo playing]

That’s all they are, just made out of paddle pop sticks.

Got nothing to work with, to still capture his culture.

Bang, straight out of icy-pole sticks.

So you know what I mean.

I don't know.

[gentle music playing]

[sighs] Once you take- get put on this roundabout…

it is a very hard thing to get off it, you know?

You can keep coming back. You go out with your mates on the weekend,

you have a little snort or a little bit of a pill, you know,

just to have that little party.

You know how when they go out and like the party drug, you know.

And that makes you feel good and all that. And you do that a few times.

And then you get there one time and you're having a bad trot.

You're going through like a week, two weeks, or month of feeling down

or feeling pretty shit and all that.

'Hang on a second, I know what can make me feel good.’

And start taking that drug again.

And then you'll take it the next day again,

because you know that it made you feel better,

and then they’re back onto that roundabout,

which is a cycle that is very hard to get off, for a lot of people.

Same goes with coming in, committing a crime and coming to jail.

It’s very addictive, you know.

It’s very easy for people to come here and live here, than it is outside.

And to go back out there, it’s yeah, you don’t want to start on it.

[Uncle Jack] Robby is a traditional owner of the Wergaia land.

That’s history that spans well over 80,000 years.

The sculptures represent Robby’s reconnection with his family,

and above all, his spirituality.

[gentle music playing]

Straight out and you sit it down beside the tent there.

[gentle music continues]

[man] That’s a good one.

[gentle music continues]

[man] We’re almost there.

[gentle music continues]

Very good.

As long as it captures the imagination.

Come on, boys.

[gentle music continues]

[indistinct chatter over car radio]

[Uncle Jack] Kent has come to collect the final artwork for the Confined exhibition.

[indistinct conversation]

[indistinct conversation continues]

[Uncle Jack] Kent has discovered that his cousin, an artist in The Torch program,

has died in prison.

[indistinct background chatter]

-Good. I'll be back in a minute. -Okay.

-How are ya, fella? -How are ya?

-Good to see you too. -Been a while, eh?

Been a long time. Got something paintings for ya.

I've heard you've been painting up a storm.

[indistinct background chatter]

[Paul] That a big one, eh?

[Joseph] Like fingerprints. None of them are the same.

I done that in one day.

[Paul] Yeah? And what’s the story there for that one?

That’s like, uh, water going down the drain.

-Yep. -Yeah.

Washing the blood off your hands.

-Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. -So you can move on with your life.

Bit of a cleansing, yep. What about this one?

-That's like… -This one looks really interesting.

-That’s the first… -It’s very retro.

First… Like you know, when blokes wear pink shirts?

-Yeah. -Yeah, first um,

I've worn one pink shirt in my life, and I done one pink painting.

-[Paul laughs] -And…

And not… not too good with the pink, but yeah.

I had to do it.

I'm gonna probably send that one to my daughters,

and yeah, and they make of it what they want.

[Paul] Exactly, yeah.

As long as they can touch it and know that Dad done it for 'em and…

[Paul] That’s special. Yeah, exactly. Good one.

-[Paul] That's amazing -It's time…

-time versus patience. -That's it, yep.

-Half the time you haven’t got the time. -And head space as well.

Half the time you haven’t got the patience.

Yeah.

-Well we’ll do some paperwork then. -Yep.

And I'll get these two off and…

my boss’ll pick which one, you know, will probably go in.

Yeah, definitely.

I don’t do em. They’re already done in my head,

and it mixes with emotions in my heart that I feel at the time,

and my hands just take over.

And then I blink, and they’re done.

It's…

And it helps me relieve myself and my brain from being not just in here,

but to help me express myself in other ways than…

other ways than talking and or violence, yeah.

It really, really helps me get along with everybody.

[Paul] Right. We’ll do some paperwork, then.

Alright then.

I feel really great.

I feel blessed to do it and have the opportunity to…

compare notes with all the other guys,

and it’s basically as an individual doing a group activity.

It’s like being in a team.

It’s like, oh, playing football again, yeah.

It’s… it’s really good.

Yeah, and um… like… you know,

you don’t get the opportunity every day to do something as a team.

So that’s why I just… I feel that this is really, really, really, really good

for personal growth,

and growth as, you know, as a group, yeah.

[Joseph] The name, the original name it gave me…

-[Paul] Yeah, what was it? -[Joseph] …was…

-…grey. Grey Area. In life. -[Paul] Oh yeah, I prefer that.

When we’re caught, when we’re caught in between black and white,

we’re in the grey area of life.

[Paul] And that’s got a grey area. That’s much better.

That’s what it told me.

That’s much better. And we got Fingerprints over here.

Yeah.

Here’s the book we made on Wemba Wemba.

-Oh, yeah. -The history.

Got some creation stories here, a bit of lingo if you want to…

-Yeah, yeah. -…make that story in your own language.

Um.

Obviously, those are significant places for your mob as well.

Yeah, my aunty is in that lake. And my grandmother.

-Yeah, yeah. It’s beautiful up there, eh. -Yeah.

[Kent] Yes, of course. That’s fantastic.

It’s got the Murray River. It’s got the banks.

-Yeah, so you got your linework going on. -Yeah.

-[Kent] Fantastic. -Yeah.

-That’s really fantastic. -I keep it simple.

-Yeah, great. -Yeah.

Really good. Alright. That’s coming with us.

-Yeah, no worries. -[Kent laughs]

And it’ll look fantastic, once it’s put together as one canvas and stretched.

-Yeah. -In the gallery that’ll be absolute gold.

Well that’s my first real attempt at it, so…

-Is it? Like… -Yeah.

-It’s great to see works like this. -Yeah.

It’s very… it’s very unique. It’s very contemporary as well.

You're kind of looking at the landscape and what’s always been there.

-Yeah. -And the markings that you've made

-are contemporary. -So yeah,

it’s important to have the meaning behind it and what the story tells

itself as the picture depicts my individuality.

-Yeah, yeah. No, great job mate. -Yeah.

-Yeah cool, mate. -[both laugh]

Right.

-[Kent] Right, I'll see you. -Yeah.

[Troy] Yeah, I don't know.

My court case last week didn’t go too well,

and I might be looking at more time.

I don't know yet. I put in for another indicator.

Fingers crossed I might be able to go home before Christmas, but…

if I can’t, I can’t. It is what it is.

We weren’t built to drink.

We don’t process alcohol as well as what Anglo Saxons do.

So we’re all more or less topping up every time we drink,

and just through my own experiences,

I know that alcohol was one of the biggest crutches for me.

That’s why I've been in and out of jail.

And social aspect, of course we have that racism,

but I've got a little bit of a different sort of twinge on it,

because I've had reverse racism as well, from both sides of the fence.

And I struggled with my cultural identity and who I was, because of that,

trying to be blacker than what I was…

and understanding that I had both white in me and black.

So they’re the social divisions I had to cross myself,

and to be accepted in those sort of things that I do

that I shake my head to now, as an older fella.

Oh, just trying to fit in.

Fighting. Drinking.

Some of the things that make me shudder.

[laughs] Some of the things I've done…

…just crazy, to be accepted…

to work out my fear of self-loathing that I did have.

What I've come to know is what my insecurities were growing up,

and what I've gone through and…

…domestic violence, the onset of that.

How my mentors, growing up as a kid.

It was socially acceptable in Australian conditions as to how you drink and,

you might bash your wife or whatever, you know.

Those were all things that were hidden in the closet

when I was growing up as a 70's kid.

And those mentors that we take on.

I always said, ‘I'll never end up like my old man.

I'll never end up like me Dad’ you know.

Even my father, he worked his guts out and you know, I tip my hat for that.

But socially, he was… he was… numb.

He didn’t have mentors to roll off.

What we know as today as acceptable behaviour,

I had no idea of, growing up.

And I ended up emulating my father in so many ways that I don’t care to remember.

Wish to forget.

[indistinct background chatter]

Just gonna sign it.

-I finished the painting. -[Alex] After how long?

Between five and six months.

[indistinct background chatter]

No, it’s good. I like it. I like the yellow.

It’s me, you know. I made it. That’s what I done, you know.

I suppose it’s unique for me.

Yeah, yeah.

When I am eventually freed, I will continue to do my artwork,

it’s brought me culturally closer to understanding myself

and my tribal grounds and…

where I'm from and how they depicted their artwork back in the day,

so, with my own individual twist.

[indistinct background chatter]

Black makes me look slimmer.

[laughter]

Come help us cuz, hey?

[indistinct background chatter]

-[Jim] You right, mate? -[man] You right?

[Jim] This way.

[indistinct chatter]

The diamond’s for Guna/Kurnai, the land we’re on.

We all just add our own little bit, like the black there,

for one of the brothers from Alice Springs.

The red there, like my people are Tassie, so we use red.

And all the other brothers with the white and that.

We not doing the dances all different mobs we’re doing the dance as one mob.

[indistinct chatter]

[Didgeridoo playing]

[clapping, applause]

[laughter]

Ours is the creation dance, you know.

I was Bundjul the eagle, the creator, and yeah, the boys just…

we just went through, you know the animals.

The first one was the kangaroo, then the emu,

and then we all done Bundjul together, the eagle.

So yeah, that’s the creation dance.

-[indistinct background chatter] -[gentle music playing]

[Christopher] This year is bigger than last year

as in participation, and the people wanting to get more involved in it,

being in Confined. So even next year,

if some of these boys will be still here and for the people that are coming,

it’ll be even bigger.

So I think Kent needs to hire some people. I'm putting my hand up.

And my cousin Bungeye’s coming, I hope. That’s him.

See youse all there. More the merrier.

[gentle music playing]

Okay, here we are. [laughs]

[Christopher] To see all them people there walking around, looking at people’s art.

And I like hearing the comments and all that, and just seeing people.

It’ll be pretty cool. Be a tremendous feeling, I think it’d give ya.

[Damien] I just want to see me painting get out there.

For me, I put so much time into it.

I've had everyone say, ‘Yeah, it’s a good painting, this and that’ but,

I want to see actual other people outside of jail

know that it’s come from a prisoner and sit there and still enjoy the painting.

[Joseph] That’s what brought us together as a group,

and given us experiences that no one can take away from us.

No matter how dark the times get,

no one can take away Confined 8, art exhibitionists.

We’re all together as one brotherhood.

[gentle music playing]

[indistinct chatter]

[gentle music continues playing]

[indistinct chatter]

Look at that!

-[gentle music continues] -[indistinct background chatter]

Five-hundred-dollar cash award and it goes to Robby Wirramanda.

So Robby, if you could come here please.

[applause]

[laughter]

Never.

Five hundred bucks, mate. I'm rapt.

That’s like, I didn’t even get a Christmas present this year.

Jackie said I'm too old. She said, ‘No, you're too old. Present’s for the kids.'

Thanks, mate. This is my Christmas present.

[applause]

[gentle music playing]

[Troy] I got out December 20 and I've been out for approximately four months now.

This is my court date that was set before I was released.

Yeah, I've been keeping up the program. I've been doing, ticking all the boxes.

Crossing the Ts, dotting the Is. Staying out of trouble.

Doing all the right things that both society and this court room

suggest we live by.

I want to try and get onto as much art as I can because it’s…

it’s lit a fire of inspiration under me,

so it’s maybe something that I never knew was down there

that I've been able to connect with.

[Alex] And what are some of the possible outcomes of today, do you think?

Um… obviously, incarceration.

Idealistically, I'd like to get an extension of my corrections order,

um, because that’s going so well.

But fingers crossed, it all depends.

The matrix of the court system on the day is on the day.

[Uncle Jack] When entering back into society,

the struggle continues.

[man] Any spare change, please?

[Robby] Being a convicted drug dealer,

is that gonna stop me from training a fighter,

and getting a job as a personal trainer?

It’s not just for me. It’s for a lot of, you know,

brothers and sisters getting out of prison.

Um, you can’t just keep being punished, you know what I mean?

You go through, you do your time.

You can turn around, understand yourself, assess your life and think,

‘Okay, now I've gotta move on.’

And you go to move on after healing yourself, and you get stopped again.

Say, ‘Oh no, we can’t hire you, because you're a criminal.'

‘Hang on, I went to prison for that.'

So let’s move on,

otherwise they fully need to understand the word and what recidivism means.

I'll give you a hug to start with.

-How’s it going? -Very good.

[Troy] Justice prevailed, finally, for a black man.

I'm actually not even going bother saying never say never,

because I refuse to actually ever be on the wrong side of this setting again.

Because in order for me to not be a hypocrite…

or not carry any conviction in any of our interviews,

then I would end up back here.

But, I want to stay fat to what I do and stay who I am,

and learn out of this something that I can give as a gift to the universe,

the positive, that it’s given me.

[Uncle Jack] A private art dealer in Melbourne

has commissioned an installation of Robby’s sculptures.

[Robby] This is the type of door that art opens.

You know, it can open for anyone.

It’s just a matter of pushing through and really believing in what your product is.

All wise men, or wise women…

would definitely create more opportunities than they find.

Well for me, it’s just how glad I am and how grateful I am to be able to be

with my family, you know. It helps you sort of realise what you've got.

So they say you don’t know what you've got till you lose it,

well, when you've lost it and you get it back again,

you make sure you treat it right and make sure everything works how it should

when you, when you're back in that environment.

This is called the ‘Brighton blazer.’

Helps me blend in.

But I just, I have to pull these, pull it down like that.

I just walk around like that, so no one can see the hands.

The Brighton blazer. Look at that.

Smartarse.

[Uncle Jack] Troy has been using hard drugs since his release from prison.

In particular methamphetamine.

[Troy] This here is my country, where I was born.

And the gold is my aura, the red is my blood.

Here is Djukuba from my language, dreaming.

And that’s the representation of the other tribes,

and the circles being tribal, radial boundaries.

I was given the opportunity, or actually now I look at it as a gift,

to meet a cousin of mine, Robby Wirramanda.

How’re you doing, bruz?

But I spoke to him for the first time, and we not only touched base,

we were able to ascertain that we are very close blood related.

Hopefully Robby when he comes, my cousin, when he comes to see it,

will enjoy what he’s looking at.

It’ll be appeasing to his eyes.

So that’d be… it’s all coming from good energy.

That’s the one and only basis or start that I care about.

This now is the survival that I've had to adapt to and change to,

and put to rest those still waters that made me the violent…

unaccepting and…

dangerous person to be around, when I was younger,

which led me to be incarcerated for nine years.

So enough of that.

[gentle music playing]

I've had an authority problem my whole life.

And gone against the grain.

This, and the years of mistakes and the good things that I've done

over 45, have all combined to conjoin to this.

[Tania] Come here.

Here we go. Here. Come on.

[Troy] I'm a bush black anyway. This is comeback country for me.

I'd forgotten what you can get out of it, you know.

Wood.

-No, not just wood. -Heat.

-You do that. But the thing is… -I do that. [laughs]

…up here for me, so I'm not away from you for another year.

Mm. No way. Never again.

You know how long it took me to get back into the groove of society.

-Mm, four months. -Hey? Shit yeah, man.

Nine years of your life’s a long time to be…

Just need to be loved, baby.

Love myself and be honest with myself and be courageous enough, firstly.

-Mm. -Absolutely.

A lot out here in this bush that white man don’t know about.

Yeah, I know. You're proud of me, aren’t you?

I had eight frogs and I let them loose again.

Yeah, and I bet you they spoke to you, too.

-No they didn’t, that’s true. -[both laugh]

-She loves her animals. -That’s why I'm with you, baby.

I'm just a gorilla, mate.

-[gentle music playing] -[magpies sing]

You get one shot, but you get plenty of chances.

And to be not able to envisage what they are,

to grab onto them, is where we need help.

Not only in the Aboriginal sector, but in the human relations sector of society.

So people can see with their own eyes and their own way that there is a chance,

and things do get better.

Like a phoenix from the ashes, you can rise,

and make a lot calmer your waters that you traverse.

[sorrowful music playing]

[gentle country guitar playing]

♪ As I stood at the crossroads of life ♪

♪ My Nan said ♪

♪ Son, don't take the road Where the tears have been shed ♪

♪ It'll lead you to sadness And take you through pain ♪

♪ Please son, come back home again ♪

♪ Black man, black woman Oh where are you going ♪

♪ It's times just like these Make me feel so alone ♪

♪ Oh I wish I could find Your face in the crowd ♪

♪ Black man, black woman, call out ♪

Sometimes I think it sort of hits home with that one,

when you're coming out of prison, so many people have died.

So many people are gone.

And sometimes when I get, like been away for years like that…

when you see a brother or a sister, you're afraid to ask how their Mum is,

how their brother is. Oh, ‘How’s your brother?

How’s brother-boy going, sister-girl there?

In case the answer comes back, 'Oh, she passed away.’

You know, and it’s something you have to sort of tiptoe around.

‘How you been?’ You know.

You're frightened to ask, you know, how’s someone going.

One of the big parts of that song is…

You know, a crowd of people and sometimes you expect to see their face in the crowd.

With a crowd of people and it’s like…

you just expect to see certain people there but then you realise,

oh they’re gone, you know.

They’re gone now, so, yeah.

[Uncle Jack] Christopher was released four months ago.

He is currently on parole.

He has never successfully completed parole before.

[Christopher] This whole time getting out is

a lot different to every other time I've got out.

Every other time I've gotten out before, I knew I was going back.

Now I don't want to go back.

It’s a big difference.

You know, I didn’t think it’s just in our community, but in like a jail community,

a lot of it is, it’s not my fault.

Alex has basically helped me to do this for me.

He didn’t do it, so I didn’t know I had to it you know.

And so you go down that road.

It’s like making excuses for you to continue the other behaviour, you know.

Everyone always blames someone else.

If I was in Fitzroy and all that, all the same.

I'd be using drugs every day and then your cognitive thinking goes out the window.

You know, you don’t fuckin' sit there and weigh things up and think about things.

You just go and do it.

With The Torch program, started… I come home and I give her a cheque

with the money that I had saved up from The Torch program.

And she’s like, she can’t believe it.

She didn’t think there’d be like people to pay for my paintings.

So yeah, it’s… it does some good things for ya, you know.

Doesn't just give you the money, it gives you a self-worth…

that you are worth something. You can contribute.

That’s what it shows ya, you know?

[gentle music playing]

[indistinct background chatter]

[Uncle Jack] Robby is now employed by The Torch as a Regional Arts Officer.

mentoring artists recently released from prison.

This is the first time a former participant in the program

has become a Torch employee.

[Robby] We’ll just chuck it in the boot here.

-[indistinct chatter] -[laughter]

[man] Welcome to our world.

I've done nothing wrong.

[indistinct conversation]

Watch television and you’ll see Scaley and Jacko there, pulling in the biggest carp.

That’s about it.

[man] That would be fun.

Thanks, my brother.

[man] Showtime.

We can go down this river any time and get a feed.

Head down to the bush, get a feed.

Never go hungry here, because we’re surrounded by the river, see?

The Murray. Mm.

Plentiful, when it comes to tucker.

[man] Wanna get out?

[horn toots]

[Robby] We’ll go out this way.

-How’re you goin, mate? -Good.

He had long there down like…

[Jackson laughs] All the way down here.

Yeah.

[Alex] What happened to your hair, Robby?

Jackie cut it off because all the other women wanted to brush it.

[laughter]

[Robby] Scaley, and Gundi. What happened to Gumby?

[man] Gundiwindi.

-[Roby] What happened to Gumby? -[Gundi] They still call me…

[Robby] They still call you Gumby sometimes?

[Gundi] Yeah.

Wait for him now. Boom-boom.

[Robby] Yeah.

It’s a good place for me and a good place for the people

who are part of the program.

I wouldn’t want to be catching up to everyone inside.

I'd rather catch up to the fellas out here, you know?

That’s what it’s about, so we can sit out here and have a yarn.

Have a relax.

Catch a fish. There you go.

Nice one.

-[man] Yeah, Robby's on too. -Robby] Nah, he got off.

[scraping]

[Jackson] Next few years I gotta just progress.

I've gotta climb that ladder of opportunity, that ladder of…

awesome. That’s all I can think, really.

So, yeah.

[sighs heavily] The next few years are gonna be pretty good.

Yep.

-[Amelia] Bloody goggles! -[Kim] Yeah, bloody goggles.

[both giggle]

-Mum laid on here before. -[woman] Did she?

-Yeah. -Did she get wet? Did she fall in?

-Well done! -[Amelia] Thank you.

[Amelia] I'm doing a number one.

[Christopher] I can do something. I can make a living if I wanted to, you know.

I've got, I could do things that people like.

I can achieve something, you know.

Whereas before, it was like…

full on, commit crimes, the only way I'm gonna get money, you know?

And that’s all I know is just do that.

Now I have another avenue, another road I can go down and that,

make money and do something that I enjoy, you know.

I never had things like that before.

And that’d be the same for a lot of the boys in there.

[Uncle Jack] Christopher is making progress with his addiction issues,

and has not used drugs in several months.

His daughter, Amelia, was four months old

when he was last incarcerated for four years.

-[Christopher] Can I get some chips? -You only get ice cream!

Ice cream? Oh well, I want some ice cream then.

[Kim] Come on, get with the program. It’s only ice cream today.

-Here's… here's bark! -[Christopher] Ah!

-[Kim] Not too high. -Higher!

[Kim] Use your legs.

[Amelia] Woohoo!

[Kim] Use your legs.

[Uncle Jack] Christopher and his partner, Kim,

have known each other since they were children,

and have maintained their relationship

throughout Christopher’s life of regular imprisonment.

If Christopher can sustain his freedom,

this could be the longest time they’ve spent together.

[gentle music playing]

[Robby] I gave Troy a buzz.

We had a quick yarn and then I realised he’s me cousin.

Just having a talk about maybe some, you know, some future projects.

And uh… I was waiting for him to give me a call back,

and then I heard that he’s passed.

So, you know, that was the reason why he’d never called me back.

You know, people have said to me, ‘How did you change, bruz? How did you…

‘You know, how’d you change?’ I said, ‘Well I dove in to my problems.’

It’s like this river.

You're looking at this river, we’re right here.

Just say this river is all our problems.

Fuck that. We want to hump it that way through the bush,

as far away from it as we can, so you don’t want to even look at it.

If someone’s in there with you, well obviously they want to fix them too.

So, that's, that’s how I looked at it in prison for myself.

Being locked down 16 hours a day in Barwon…

there's a lot of time to think.

For me, I had to go right back to the start,

then start addressing all the issues, key, you know,

pivotal points in my life where

certain things made me think or feel or act a certain way.

And each, each time I dove in, it’s painful.

You don’t want to deal with it, but you can’t get out.

You have to stay there until that’s fixed.

It’s up to you. That’s the only way you're gonna fix them. Dive in.

[gentle music playing]

-[leaves rustling] -[water trickling]

♪ This is how we do it ♪

♪ This is how we do it ♪

♪ This is how we do it ♪

♪ This is how we do it now ♪

[clapping, applause]

[gentle guitar music playing]

I first met Christopher Austin in Pentridge in 1996.

I too was taken from my people and made a ward of the state.

I too was incarcerated as a child and imprisoned as a man.

Who would have thought that we would survive to tell our story?

[gentle guitar music continues]

[inaudible chatter]

-["Coming Home, Again" playing] -♪ Every now and then ♪

♪ I get as lonely as I've ever been ♪

♪ And I look around and I'm my only friend ♪

♪ Now I'm on the road again ♪

♪ Oh, my friend ♪

♪ I'm coming home again ♪

♪ Oh, my lover and my friend ♪

♪ I'm coming home again ♪

♪ Every now and then ♪

♪ I get as sad as I've ever been ♪

♪ I look around Can’t find my only friend ♪

♪ Please come take me home again ♪

♪ Oh, my friend ♪

♪ I'm coming home again ♪

♪ Oh, my lover and my friend ♪

♪ I'm coming home again ♪

♪ Just around the bend ♪

♪ I see the sun is on the rise again ♪

♪ Before this daylight ends ♪

♪ I should be back at home again ♪

♪ Oh, my friend ♪

[ethereal music playing]