I’ve writeen a lot in my newsletters about the work of Torch, but realised that it would be good to share their work more widely. Torch says of itself “We provide art, cultural and arts industry support to First Nations people currently in, or recently released, from Victorian prisons. Our aim is to reduce the rate of reoffending by encouraging the exploration of identity and culture through art.” Torch has put on two exhibitions which have taken our breath away by their truth and the evidence of the transformations from their work.
The first experience we had was seeing the Blak In-Justice Exhibition at Heide Gallery, just on the eastern outskirts of Melbourne. We were speechless, often in tears, as the artwork told the story of person after person who experienced prison and who, in the middle of that experience, were encouraged to tell their stories. I encourage you to read through the website to undersand the spelling and meaning of the word Blak. This painitng, Brush with the Lore, is the best illustration I’ve ever seen of the negatice impact of Colonial Missionary work:
For some who are incarcerated, contact with the Torch program has helped them trace their ancestry; a significant number ot people in Australian jails are First Nations People. The website reports, “First Nations Australians make up 3% of the Australian population yet represent 32% of the national adult prison population. Indigenous men are 17 times more likely to go to prison than non-Indigenous men and First Nations women are 25 times more likely to go to prison than non-Indigenous women. Since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in 1991, incarceration rates for Indigenous Australians have more than doubled and deaths in custody have continued to increase.”
The work of Torch helps people connect to their own First Nation, connect to their country, connect to their totems and to their hope. If you visit Victoria, please find an exhibition . We await We Sit in Circle.