Ex-Prisoner Turns Artist, Now Mentors Others in Victoria

A day after turning 18, Flick Chafer-Smith found herself behind bars for the first time. For the next six years, a cycle of addiction and reoffending kept her trapped in and out of prison.

"It was do or die basically," she said. "I was either going to end up in prison for the rest of my life, dead, or I had to change."

Art became her lifeline. Through The Torch, a Victorian Indigenous arts program, she discovered she could express on canvas what she couldn't put into words. When her first paintings sold, something shifted inside her.

"I thought, 'Hang on, I can actually make a positive thing and put it out into the world,'" Chafer-Smith said. "I can be known for a different reason."

Today, she's one of 424 First Nations artists featured in Confined 17, an annual exhibition at Glen Eira Town Hall showcasing work by people with lived experience of incarceration. The 500 artworks include paintings, weavings, ceramics and carved emu eggs exploring themes of kinship, healing and life journeys.

All sales go directly to released artists, while 70 percent is held for incarcerated artists to support their reintegration into the community.

The Ripple Effect

Chafer-Smith's transformation didn't stop with her own freedom. She now works as a First Peoples mentor with The Torch, regularly returning to women's prisons to guide other inmates on their own journeys.

"It's a full circle moment, being able to support those that are going through what I've been through," she explained. "It gives them that inspiration and hope that they might not have had before."

She also runs Tiddas, a monthly art group for former prisoners. Tiddas means sister. Through the group, women support each other's independence and healing.

One artist she mentored, Narnz, now teaches weaving at the exhibition. "It was absolutely amazing to have someone that's walked in my shoes," Narnz said. "That's how we are going to keep our culture alive: by sharing it."

Chafer-Smith's own painting at the exhibition shows her totem animal, a pelican in full flight against winding golden lines. The curves represent how nothing in life is straightforward. She feels her grandmother flying with her, watching over every twist and turn.

If her nanna were alive today, Chafer-Smith knows she'd be her number one cheerleader.