Fremantle Prison operated for more than a century.
It was one of the toughest, most primitive jails in Australia.
First impressions of the prison are that it's really cold, hard
and depressing.
But if you look a little deeper, behind some of the heavy cell
doors, you can find images of beauty.
This is what Ralph Woods came back to see.
He painted most of the prison's beautiful murals.
The screws asked me to put something on the wall to make
everybody happy. And my other mate, Reggie Moolarvie.
So they said, 'Okay', and they knew they was closing at that
time.
They said to make it everlasting, to make everybody
happy.
I think what Ralph is really trying to express himself in
these paintings, is that he has been taken away from the
Aboriginal traditional environment, in the bush.
And when you put in here, you still got that spiritual feeling
still within you.
And this is what he tries to bring out.
And he shows all the other people, Aboriginal people that
are in here, that we can still think of our own environment.
Even though we're locked up in an alien environment of a
dominant culture.
This is the first time Ralph's aunt Kathy has seen his prison
murals.
I'm so proud that I could come in and see it.
When he sent me home a little photo where his inmates was,
they took the photo against it, and he had another painting.
I said one day, I said, I hope I can go in and have a look at it.
She says even though Ralph spent most of his life behind bars, he
never forgot his culture.
You know, he never forgot the culture of Aboriginal people.
It's always a kangaroo and emu, black boys, the old tree, and I
reckon that is great.
So even though he's been locked up, he still..
Still kept hold of the culture, yes.
The Aboriginal culture.
Prisoners weren't always allowed to paint on the walls.
It was only during the last two years of Fremantle's operation
that inmates were given the privilege.
But even before then, a lot of Aboriginal prisoners sought
solace in art.
I've been in myself, I've been locked up in a cell up here and
down that way.
And there's really nothing more you could do but paint.
But the only thing about the painting is that when you're in
here in those days, you never had the money or finance to
bring your own material in.
And this comes back to when we wanted to sell our paintings, so
we could have some economic plan for when we go out to settle
back into society, through white people's eyes, it wasn't on
because the prison system kept their paintings because they
said that we use their materials.
And we could not sell our paintings because they took the
money and practically left us broke.
So when we walked out of here, we were still in that same sort
of feeling of not owning anything, and we never learned
anything in jail.
The artist soon discovered if they use prison art supplies,
their artwork became prison property.
That's where Dumbartung stepped in.
The organization was formed two years ago, to protect the rights
of artists in jail.
Dumbartung supplies art equipment, organises special
grants for accomplished artists, and even holds a prisoners art
exhibition once a year.
And most importantly, the prisoners are the only ones who
reap the benefits.
The exhibition did run just before Christmas and one artist
in particular, I think somewhere in the vicinity of $10,000 was
made just for for his own artwork.
So he was able to buy his children the presents and put
the food on the table.
That money was signed straight out to his family.
Canningvale Prison art teacher Tracks Taylor says the art
program benefits the prisoners and the jails.
It helps the prison system in as much as it can at times, you
know, different circumstances arise and people need to get out
of their cell units or anything like that, and it gives them the
opportunity to get away from that problem area and come into
the art area when they can get back to their creativity.
These artists in Canningvale Prison are working on an
exhibition.
Unlike the days before Dumbartung, these artists know
they'll be able to use their talent to support their
families.
Others hope to use the money to set themselves up as artists
once they're released.
I think it gives any artist a real boost if they sell a piece
of work.
These guys are so disadvantaged, because of their situation, it's
a very positive thing for them to happen.
With the prisoner's art, it's quite interesting, because you
see artwork sort of reflect bitterness, you see artworks
that reflect anger and confusion.
And again, that's been one of the reasons in which this
program has been developed.
As beautiful as the art is you can see the bitterness inside
people by what these sorts of institutions create.
Certainly a way in which people can free themselves from being
locked away inside these sorts of institutions is by doing art
works.
That obviously take them back in the minds of the country and
being back on the land and come again back into terms of coming
in touch with their Aboriginal spirit.
I don't believe beauty should be imprisoned and in a lot of
cases, a lot of our people are in prison for very trivial
offenses, ones that reflect just the fact of the economic
situation that we're in.
And, again, beauty should never be imprisoned.