REDEMPTION Arts, Community, Disability, Education, Health & Wellbeing, History, Human Rights, Indigenous, Refugees, Social Justice, Welfare, Youth “If you don't accept people can change ~ no one has an incentive to change..." Myuran Sukumaran (17 April 1981 – 29 April 2015) was an Australian who was convicted in Indonesia of drug trafficking as a member of the Bali Nine. In 2005, Sukumaran was arrested in a room at the Melasti Hotel in Kuta with three others. Police found 334 g (11.8 oz) of heroin in a suitcase in the room. According to court testimonies of convicted drug mules, Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan were the co-ringleaders of the heroin-smuggling operation from Indonesia to Australia. After a criminal trial, Sukumaran was sentenced on 14 February 2006 by the Denpasar District Court to execution by firing squad. Australian death-row prisoner Myuran Sukumaran made a personal appeal for mercy to Joko Widodo, painting a portrait of the Indonesian president and signing it with the words 'People Can Change'. After lodging an appeal against his sentence, this was initially dismissed by the Bali High Court. A judicial review conducted by the Indonesian Supreme Court on 6 July 2011 affirmed the death sentence. Sukumaran’s plea for clemency was rejected by the President of Indonesia on 30 December 2014, and Sukumaran was expected to face execution, together with Chan. The execution was carried out on 29 April 2015. Myuran Sukumaran led an art studio for his fellow prisoners during his time in Kerobokan prison, where he was mentored. Myuran taught English, computer, graphic design and philosophy classes to prisoners. The portrait of Mr Joko Widodo signed 'People Can Change' is his most recent work. He painted the oil on canvas artwork in Kerobokan prison in late January 2015, in his final weeks there before being transferred to Nusakambangan Island. Myu painted multiple self-portraits while on Nusakambangan. His final painting resembles a bleeding Indonesian flag. He was recently awarded an associate degree in fine arts by Curtin University. Myuran Sukumaran had his first major Australian exhibition at the Campbelltown Arts Centre in January 2017, curated by noted Australian artist, Ben Quilty. ‘Alone from night to night you'll find me  Too weak to break these chains that bind me I need no shackles to remind me I'm just a prisoner, don't let me be a prisoner From one command I stand and wait now From one who's master of my fate now I can't escape for it's too late now I'm just a prisoner, don't let me be a prisoner.’

REVEL Arts, Education, History, Human Rights, Indigenous, Social Justice The untold story that chronicles the thought provoking life of Southwest Aboriginal artist Revel Cooper.May 1960. Excerpts from a letter written in Prison by Revel Cooper.“At the age of six my mother died. Having no one to care for me I was warranted to Carrolup Native Settlement to be cared for by the state government. When I arrived at Carrolup it was just getting under way for the second time. Living conditions there were of the very lowest standards.As a child I attended school on and off, for how long I just don’t even wish to remember. The compound gang we called ourselves consisted of boys, girls, unmarried women and countless unmarried mothers.The dormitories were huge stone buildings, they had two rooms and one bathroom. The unmarried mothers having the room next to the boys.In the latter part of the war we had no schooling at all. One supposedly kind superintendent to keep us out of mischief supplied us with rubber and leather to make catapults to our hearts desire. After slaughtering birds and other species of wild life (including domestic cats) the novelty wore off. Then we turned our attentions to glass windows, then we turned on one another.Fights were numerous between women, men, boys and girls. Bad language wasn’t considered as such among us and was used as normal words in our everyday speech.There was open love making at every corner under every tree. At the time, we saw no reason why we boys and girls should practice what we saw. The results of what we got up to at every opportunity would shock any normal present day family.We were locked in our respective dormitories at 5pm winter and summer with no drinking water, an open sanitary bucket was placed in the centre of the floor. Being afraid of the supernatural, we were afraid to leave our beds at night. The stench of urine soaked rugs and mattresses were something that only the ones that lived in there could bare to smell.We had our bullies among the elder boys. In the winter they visited our beds, if we had three rugs we parted with two or else. If we had one they took that for spite. We dare not report these culprits because we knew the results, no matter what we did against them we always paid”.The migration from mission to prison to alcohol did not stop Revel Cooper from becoming a prolific artist who spoke for the rights of others, whilst playing a major role in pioneering the unique style of Noongar art that thrives and inspires artists to this day................. The writing of this script is underway.

HOMELANDS Arts, Community, Education, Environment, History, Human Rights, Indigenous, Social Justice, Youth BRIEF SYNOPSIS: In Australia today over 250 remote indigenous homeland communities face forced closure. Djakapurra Munyarryun, a celebrated indigenous artist often called upon to travel the world and share his traditional knowledge wants to know why people want his culture but not his homeland lifestyle? It’s a simple question without a simple answer. EXTENDED SYNOPSIS: HOMELANDS is an authored documentary that looks to define what has to be done by the next generation of Yolngu leaders to create the future they want and not the one other’s tell them they have to have. Structured around the journey of Djakapurra Munyarryun, a 42 year-old Yolngu man and celebrated performing artist from NE Arnhem Land, as he wrestles with his quest for a better and more equitable future for his family and community. But the forces against achieving that, laden as they are with assimilationist views, conveniently forget that the Homeland’s Movement is an active implementation of the Rights to Culture recognised in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It’s also what Djakapurra and other Yolngu leaders want for their children. In the Northern Territory 32% of the population is indigenous and over 60% of these live in remote homelands, with around 7,500 Yolngu amongst them. But many of these homelands are small, like Dhalinybuy where Djakapurra’s family lives, housing 50-100 people at most. Across the country, WA and SA state governments are set to close 250 homeland communities because they’re ‘unsustainable’. This doesn’t bode well for NT homeland’s future. In September 2007 the Commonwealth and the Northern Territory Governments signed an MOU that saw the transfer of responsibility for Indigenous housing and infrastructure handed to the Northern Territory Government and marked the cessation of Commonwealth funding for the 500 plus communities classed as homelands. Eight years on we see the NT Homeland movement starting to break under the strain as services remain under funded and programs are cut back to the bone. However, with the ambition of NT statehood in play for 2018 and the quest for Constitutional recognition of Australia’s first nation’s people, the question of Homeland’s future in Australia’s north is sure to be a major topic of debate as this film prepares the groundwork for a renewed call of self-determination. Conceived as a feature documentary HOMELANDS employs an immersive atmosphere that will lead its audience on a powerful human journey into the heart of Yolngu culture, backgrounded by an historic injustice and a contemporary social crisis. For Djakapurra, a man who has spent his life presenting his culture on the world’s stages, this means taking his 12-year old son Russell on the journey to manhood. First through his dhapi initiation and then onto the stage, as Djakapurra builds the dream of running his own remote homeland-based Production Company from Dhalinybuy with the development of a new work.