Every time Archie Roach steps inside a prison, there's a little bit of himself he sees in the men and women behind bars.
Roach, the 2020 Victorian Australian of the Year and singer-songwriter, has a simple message for those he meets.
"You can make mistakes but you can turn your life around," he says.
Roach is speaking from experience.
As a young man, Roach battled alcohol addiction and spent time living on the streets — a period that also included stints in jail.
His life spiralled badly in the years after he found out he was a member of the Stolen Generations and discovered the true story of his biological family's history.
In the three decades that have passed, Roach has become a celebrated musician, author and passionate advocate for First Nations peoples.
Through the foundation that bears his name, Roach and another Aboriginal elder, Uncle Jack Charles, have been conducting prison visits with the hope of inspiring young offenders to embrace their heritage and hopefully, turn a corner in their lives.
"There's a disconnect they have from community, country and culture," Roach says of many Indigenous prisoners they encounter.
'We carry a heavy burden'
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are over-represented in jails, making up 28 per cent of the prison population.
The same group only makes up 3.3 per cent of Australia's total population.
Poorer health outcomes and education levels are also some of the inequities the Federal Government hopes to improve with the reset of its Closing the Gap targets.
"It's going to take a good while, it's going to take a shift in people's way of thinking and their outlook on who we are and what we should do.
"We need to work together on this. We carry a heavy burden. A lot of that baggage doesn't belong to us, and we need somebody else to shoulder some of that responsibility."
History re-told for new generations
Roach wants the stories of his generation to resonate with a younger audience.
Thirty years on from the release of his debut album Charcoal Lane, he has teamed up with First Nations educational writers from Culture Is Life to produce short videos to be played in school classrooms.
The resources are available online on the ABC Education portal.
"It's important that we tell the whole history of this country and be truthful about it, because it's the only way we can move forward as a country, as a nation," Roach says in one of the videos.
Among the topics discussed, Roach talks about the experiences of the Stolen Generations and how song writing has helped his healing process.
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"Every time I sing it I let a little bit of it go," Roach says of the pain he feels when he sings his most famous song, Took the Children Away.
"I've been singing it a long time. I'm sure one day I'll be singing it … and it'll all just go, and I'll be free."
Thara Brown, a writer with Culture Is Life, says the history of the Aboriginal people has not been properly taught in schools.
"We need to talk about the true histories of this country more, so I'm really hoping that these resources, being in schools, help shape and restructure the way teachers deliver it," she told ABC Radio Melbourne.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMibGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTExLTA4L2FyY2hpZS1yb2FjaC1lbmNvdXJhZ2VzLWluZGlnZW5vdXMtcHJpc29uZXJzLWxvb2stdG8tY3VsdHVyZS8xMjgzOTA3NNIBJ2h0dHBzOi8vYW1wLmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvYXJ0aWNsZS8xMjgzOTA3NA?oc=5
2020-11-07 21:57:00Z
CBMibGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTExLTA4L2FyY2hpZS1yb2FjaC1lbmNvdXJhZ2VzLWluZGlnZW5vdXMtcHJpc29uZXJzLWxvb2stdG8tY3VsdHVyZS8xMjgzOTA3NNIBJ2h0dHBzOi8vYW1wLmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvYXJ0aWNsZS8xMjgzOTA3NA
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