Confined 17 brings hundreds of First Peoples artists to Glen Eira

The seventeenth annual Confined exhibition has opened at Glen Eira City Council Gallery in Melbourne, presenting work by 424 First Peoples artists from across Victoria with lived experience of incarceration.

Presented by Indigenous arts organisation The Torch, Confined 17 gathers 497 artworks including paintings, woven forms, carved emu eggs, ceramics, a handmade woollen rug, and a painted guitar. A large-scale video installation anchors the exhibition, sharing intimate interviews filmed on Country and in the artists’ homes. A dedicated gallery space foregrounds the voices of women artists, a growing cohort within the program supported through regular Tiddas Group gatherings.

The Torch’s Indigenous Arts in Prisons and Community program supports First Nations people in Victoria whose lives have been impacted by the criminal justice system. Through art, participants reconnect with culture, develop new skills, and earn an income. One hundred per cent of each artwork’s sale price goes directly to the artist.

Across the exhibition, themes of kinship, healing, and ancestral knowledge emerge, grounded in culture and carried through contemporary expression. The works span Country and language groups, from Noongar/Mineng peoples to Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara, Palawa, Yorta Yorta, Ngarrindjeri/Kukabrak, and Gunaikurnai artists.

The Torch CEO and Barkindji man Kent Morris said the exhibition was about giving Indigenous men and women who are incarcerated a voice through their cultural practice. Mr Morris has previously described the program as a way to heal the wounds of the past while developing new pathways through art and economic stability.

The program addresses the disproportionate over-representation of First Nations people in Australia’s prisons. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up a small share of the adult population but represent more than a third of the national adult prison population. Evaluations of The Torch program indicate substantially lower rates of return to prison for participants compared to the average Indigenous recidivism rate.

The program also addresses cultural disconnection. Many participants begin painting while inside and continue after release, often using ancestral stories, totems, and Country as the foundation of their work. For those returning to community after incarceration, art becomes both a livelihood and a continuing tie to culture.

Confined 17 runs from 1 May to 14 June at the Glen Eira City Council Gallery in Caulfield. Accompanying programs include weaving workshops, live music, talks, screenings, free weekly tours, and live art sessions. Every purchase made through The Torch directly supports the artist’s economic empowerment and cultural practice.

The exhibition has been described as a quiet but powerful platform for truth-telling. For the 424 artists, it is a chance to be seen on their own terms, with their work, their stories, and their Country front and centre. For visitors, it is an invitation to engage with the over-representation of First Nations Australians in the criminal justice system through the strength of culture rather than the language of statistics.