Confined 17 exhibition showcases art of incarcerated First Nations women

Reaching adulthood is usually a cause for celebration, but Flick Chafer-Smith hit rock bottom a day after her 18th birthday when she was sent to jail.

Swept into a grim cycle of drug addiction and reoffending, she spent the next six years in and out of prison until she found her salvation through art.

“So art was a massive part of helping me do that. I was able to put on canvas things that I wasn’t able to vocalise and express through words.”

Ms Chafer-Smith was helped by the Victorian Indigenous arts program, The Torch, which engages with First Nations people in jail, providing them with artistic support and connection to culture, as well as financial income from arts sales.

“From a young age, I struggled a lot with addiction, mental health, family violence problems,” she said.

“When I was inside, I only saw myself as a criminal, a drug addict. After a while being told that continuously, you start to believe it.

“But once I started painting and I had my first few sales, I thought: ‘Hang on, I can actually make a positive thing and put it out into the world. I can be known for a different reason.’

Ms Chafer-Smith is among 424 artists featured in Confined 17, an exhibition running at Glen Eira Town Hall and organised by The Torch.

‘Inspiration and hope’

Confined 17 is the 17th annual exhibition showcasing the work of First Nations artists with lived experience of incarceration in Victoria.

The 500 or so artworks, which include paintings, weaving, ceramics and carved emu eggs, address themes of kinship, healing, ancestral stories and life journeys.

One hundred per cent of exhibition sales go directly back to the artists who have already been released.

For those still incarcerated, 70 per cent is withheld to help them integrate back into the community after they complete their jail terms.

Apart from her artistic success, Flick is most proud of her role as a First Peoples mentor with the Torch.

She regularly visits women’s prisons in Victoria to help guide other inmates on their own art-led journey of redemption.

“It’s a full circle moment, being able to support those that are going through what I’ve been through,” Ms Chafer-Smith explained.

“It gives them that inspiration and hope that they might not have had before.”

She also convenes a monthly art group for former prisoners.

“The group is called Tiddas, the word for sister. It’s incredible seeing my artists thrive and achieve their goals in life: being able to be independent, never looking back towards jail,” Ms Chafer-Smith said.

“Those things really fill my cup.”

One of the artists she’s mentored, Narnz, credits her friend Flick for turning her life around.

“It was absolutely amazing to have someone that’s walked in my shoes and be a support for my art and my weaving. There are no words to describe it,” Narnz said.

“I’m now teaching people how to weave [at the exhibition], so they’re now able to be a part of our culture. 

Flick Chafer-Smith’s painting portrays her totem animal, the pelican, in full flight. Its wings stretch out against winding golden lines, symbolising the fact that “nothing in life is straightforward”.

“I feel like it’s my grandmother, my nanna, flying with me, keeping an eye over me and always being there for the ups and downs,” she said.

“And I know that if she was here today, she would be my number one cheerleader.”