05 Feb 2025

On FOCAL POINT

• Dr Abby Jayasuriah has completed a PHD dissertation on a Sri Lankan musician,  Pandith W. D. Amradeva. This was an ethnomusicological study that looked at the relationship between his music; other genres of music; and nationalism.
• Mia Gardiner, from Crime Stoppers Victoria, shared tips to keep our homes more secure  and us safer.
• Tony Doyle invited all to a one-off Fringe Festival Show "Vistas and Visions of a Blind Man" 
• Damien Linnane is the Editor of "Paper Chained" and is also involved in a collaboration with Vision Australia Radio and About Time to produce a program and podcast "Inside Voice" showcasing writing and artistic expressions from individuals affected by incarceration.  

Resources:

• Pandith W. D. Amradeva songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuJRbIFjWfY&list=PLqyjjU4T15JAc0C97Z69EN3V7RU1R_vmY 
• Crime Stoppers Victoria: Call 1800 333 00 or go to: http://www.crimestoppersvic.com.au 
• "Vistas and Visions of a Blind Man" Saturday 1st March at 2 30 pm Ayers House Ballroom. To book call1300 621 255 or go to https://adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/vistas-and-visions-of-a-blind-man-adventures-in-a-eye-af2025 
• Inside Voice Podcast: https://omny.fm/shows/insidevoice 
• Paper Chained: https://www.paperchained.com 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

S1 (00:15):
Good evening and welcome to Focal Point here on Vision
Australia Radio. You have the 90 7 a.m. in Adelaide
online at radio Bay, Radio Digital in Adelaide and Darwin
through the TuneIn radio app for the Vision Australia Radio
Adelaide Peter Greco saying great to be here on behalf
of Phillip Napier and the big hello to Wendy McDougall

(00:36):
listening in this program, coming to you from Garden Land.
Come to you very shortly. We'll catch up with the doctor,
Abby Jayasuriya, who's done a very interesting PhD, I'm sure,
a topic that is rather unique, but certainly very interesting.
Then catch up with Mia Gardner back with us from
Crime Stoppers. Victoria. Mia's topic. Home safety. So important. We'll

(00:57):
then catch up with bon vivant a Tony Doyle who's
got his big show happening March First part of the
Adelaide Fringe. Vistas and visions of a Blind Man. Your
personal invitation to attend is minutes away, and then we'll
catch up with Damien LaLanne, who's the editor for a
publication called Paper Chained. Also behind the Inside Voice program

(01:21):
that's now on Australia Radio, very much featuring and aimed
at people who have either been incarcerated or are in
jail at the time. I'm sure you'll enjoy that interview, too.
If you're listening through 1190 7 a.m. in Adelaide at
8:00 for your listening pleasure. Lizzie and Sam are here
with Studio One just before we hear what they've got

(01:42):
on their menu. Just letting you know that the SA
branch of Blind South Australia. Their next catch up is
coming up on Saturday the 22nd of February at 22
Jetty Road, Glenelg. The green Tea House. If you'd like
to go along, get in touch with Kerry Skipworth via
the office. One 800 Zero. Double three. 6601 800 zero three. 660. That's. Sunday,

(02:08):
February 22nd at 22 Jetty Road, Glenelg. The green tea house.
Let's find out what's Lucy and Sam have got in
store tonight.

S2 (02:17):
We take a look overseas.

S3 (02:19):
Lars Bosselman, the executive director of the European Blind Union,
is our guest.

S2 (02:24):
We also have a couple of things to say about
a certain white House press conference held last week.

S3 (02:29):
Join us at 8:00 for Studio One.

S1 (02:34):
Welcome to the program, doctor Abby Jayasuriya, about a tenuous
link with the Australian men's cricket team playing Sri Lanka
at the moment in Sri Lanka and some things that
Abby has done. I'd be glad to catch up and
thanks for your time.

S4 (02:48):
Thanks for having me.

S1 (02:49):
That's about this PhD. How did that come about? Why
did you choose the topic?

S4 (02:53):
Yeah, it's an interesting one. So, um, I had finished
my honours, um, at uni in 2015 and I had
always wanted to do a research project. I guess that
was always kind of my end game with uni, and
I hadn't actually thought of doing a research project based
on a Sri Lankan musician, which is what I ended
up doing. Um, initially I was looking at, you know,
classical composers and, and psychology because I had originally studied

(03:17):
Western classical composition. That was kind of my, my comfort zone.
But one of the lecturers there was like, hmm, that
might be a little bit hard to prove what you're
trying to kind of talk about, because I was trying
to talk about grief and how that is expressed in composition,
and he kind of countered me and said, you know, well,
some of the composers that have been through great trauma have, um, composed,

(03:40):
you know, really joyful pieces of music within those periods
in their lives. And I thought, oh, yeah, he has
a point. So, um, they asked me, well, what do
you know about Sri Lankan music? And I thought, well,
I know a lot about the poppy, poppy kind of genres.
But then I went home and I thought about it
and I ended up choosing a singer that we call

(04:00):
Pandith W.D. Amaradeva. And he was one of our first
nationalist composers. And it's funny because, um, for those musicians
out there, I always thought that he used chromaticism in
his music because the melodies always seem to go where
I least expected them. That basically means that he used
notes outside our major and minor musical scales. So that's

(04:24):
what I kind of thought. I was like, oh, I
don't know what's what's going on with this guy. I
could never really kind of follow the music, so to speak,
but my parents listened to it a lot. Specifically my dad.
So I kind of grew up listening to his music,
but not really understanding it. So I thought, well, since
he's such a big kind of deal in the Sri
Lankan community and in our society, and there didn't appear

(04:47):
to be much research done on his music or on
Sri Lankan music at all, really. I think I only
found about four other dissertations or so. I decided to
study him, and it was a really big learning curve
for me.

S1 (04:59):
What about the research then? Because, uh, for people who
might be aware, you are blind. So what about in
terms of, uh, doing the research and and sort of
finding the information that you were after? How did you
go about doing that?

S4 (05:09):
Yeah, it was tricky. Um, I guess fortunately at that
time I had more functional vision than I have now. Um,
so I was able to look at my computer. Um,
I just had really bad, you know, visual fatigue. So
I was a mac user at that time, and I
would use a lot of text to speech. So I
would highlight the text and get the Mac with the
option escape shortcut to read it out, which was really handy.

(05:32):
There were kind of some tricky things with this research. Uh,
because because it was kind of the songs were in
another language. I did have to enlist sighted help, because
the Sinhalese language has kind of amassed words from other
languages like Sanskrit as well. So for some of the letters,
I think, yeah, like the letter R, I think I
can't remember. And the letter F, there are two different

(05:55):
characters in the alphabet for an R and another two
for the letter S, and they sound exactly the same
when you when you hear them. But I think some
of those words, because they derived from Sanskrit, um, there
was like one where you put a tiny dot under,
if you're writing it in English to represent that, it's
that particular character. So for things like that, I did

(06:16):
need to get started help, and especially because I didn't
actually really speak the language fluently at the time, that
was something also that I had to learn and get
better at. But I mainly, um, because there wasn't as
much research online. I did have to borrow a lot
of books from, you know, Canberra Library and other libraries
for the National Archives. I had to get newspapers in.
So I did have to digitize a lot of those

(06:38):
resources so that my computer could read them back to me. Um,
and for as an example, there was one book that
was a letter from one of the nationalist members of
Sri Lanka at that time, and he had written a
book of a thousand Pages. Um, so it wasn't really
a book that he'd written. It was more letters that
people had, you know, amassed and put into a book.

(06:59):
And I had to scan that entire thing. So I
scanned a thousand pages, and in the end, I only
ended up using two of those pages. That's the way
it is now.

S1 (07:09):
You kind of drew a number of threads together too,
didn't you, regarding kind of politics and religion as well?

S4 (07:14):
That's right. Yeah. So I had to look at, um,
I guess the first question my supervisor asked me, um,
because this singer kind of his music was an amalgamation of, um,
Sri Lankan folk music, um, as well as North Indian
classical music. So my supervisor asked me, why was it
North Indian music? Why not South Indian?

S1 (07:33):
Yeah, I was going to ask that same question.

S4 (07:35):
That's right. Yeah. Very good question. Because, um, for those
that don't know, in Sri Lanka, the two major ethnic
groups are the Sinhalese. Um, and this particular music musician
was Sinhalese and they're the majority ethnic group. And then
the next biggest ethnic group are the Tamils. Um, and
they kind of their ancestry is South Indian. So why
not South Indian music? So when I looked into, um,

(07:58):
Sri Lankan kind of traditional music, like pre-colonial music, there
was a lot of, um, South Indian music that was
played by the aristocracy, um, which is interesting, but with
the kind of nationalist revival that came, you know, late
1800s people started looking at, you know, our roots in
Sri Lanka, particularly the Sinhalese, because they were the ones

(08:20):
that were, you know, dominating the culture and the politics
of the country being the the majority. So it turns
out that there is this, um, origin myth. So scientists
have proven that, um, the indigenous population in Sri Lanka
were kind of related to the indigenous population in Australia.
They were the same group of people that migrated, you know,

(08:41):
all the way. I'm not sure where they came from,
but they ended up in India. They went to Sri
Lanka and then I think down to Malaysia, Indonesia and
then finally to Australia. Yeah. So they were the indigenous
inhabitants of the country. Um, and then according to this
origin myth, there was this kind of troubled prince in
India that was kind of a really terrible person that
had a really kind of terrible gang of cronies. And his, um,

(09:03):
it's a funny story, but his parents, I think, banished him,
and they ended up, you know, they were being sent
to some island, but they there was a storm. And
because the myth is really tied up in Buddhism. So
it was kind of, um, I guess predicted, uh, by
the Buddha that this kind of group of people would
spawn a new race in Sri Lanka, and that would

(09:24):
kind of, in the future, lead to the spread of
Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Yeah, yeah. So this storm kind
of intercepted the boat and they ended up in Sri Lanka. Um,
they did kind of I guess the the myth is
kind of alluding to the fact that there was migration from, from,
you know, north and South India. But in the myth, the,
the prince was actually North Indian. Right? So I guess

(09:47):
with the British where they kind of divided and conquered.
There was this kind of ethnic conflict between the Sinhalese
and the Tamils. Even I guess back then it was
sort of brewing. So I guess the Sinhalese developed, not developed,
but they held on to this origin myth, where kind
of it was about us being, you know, of North
Indian heritage and the Sinhalese language kind of being linked

(10:10):
to Sanskrit, which was predominantly used in North India as well.
And that was kind of what was reflected in the
music of the time, which was kind of regulated by
the radio in a sense. And that's why they decided
to use North Indian music rather than South Indian music
for this particular nationalist genre.

S1 (10:27):
How much does the fact that you studied music at
a high level help with your PhD?

S5 (10:31):
It did help quite a lot.

S4 (10:33):
But um, as I kind of alluded to before, where
I thought that composer was, you know, using chromaticism or
notes outside of the scale, I actually had no idea
about Sri Lankan folk music. So pre-colonial music. I only
knew about the pop music genres which were based on,
you know, like Latin American, uh, rhythms and Western scales

(10:53):
and chord patterns. And this particular musician, because he combined,
you know, North Indian music, he was actually using Hindustani
classical ragas, which are the scales used, you know, in
North India. And that's why his melodies were going, you know,
in directions that I had not been able to predict.
So I did use a lot of my, you know,
annotation skills, like noting down, um, the notes as, you know,

(11:17):
as Western classical notation. And that really helped me. Um,
I used to do drumming as well. So I was
pretty good at, um, notating all the fancy rhythms that
they had. So it did help a lot. But I
did also have to learn a lot too. And, um, yeah,
learn all these, you know, new musical terms both from
India and from Sri Lanka.

S1 (11:35):
I've spoken to a few people who've done PhDs and often, well, sorry.
They occasionally talk about the fact that it was really
hard and to get support, you know, from supervisors, Supervise, etc..
How did you find that experience?

S5 (11:46):
Yeah, it was an interesting one.

S4 (11:47):
My supervisor was absolutely amazing. His name is, um. He's
an associate professor at Mora, and he started he studied
Filipino tribal music, I believe, and he was really fantastic. However,
he was also very busy. He was the course convenor.
He ran a few of the ensembles as well. And also, um,
he did his research and he had, you know, his,

(12:09):
his students that he supervised for their, um, postgrad studies.
So he was a little bit hard to get hold
of sometimes. But then I was also the person that
would go and stew on things. So I would like
I would often go down rabbit holes, you know, read
far more than I had to. And then I would
kind of go back to him after three months with
a with an almost completed chapter. So I guess for

(12:30):
me it did work quite well. Um, he did a
lot of editing for me. Um, but in the end,
he did realize that, you know, there needed to be
a lot more editing work that I couldn't detect, particularly
for punctuation, because I wasn't using a screen reader at
that time. And now I know that with the old
Microsoft Word, the voiceover screen reader was actually quite terrible.

(12:50):
So I didn't think I could have used a screen
reader even if I had the skills back then. So
he got me a scholarship. Um, and I used that
money to, um, to pay for an editor, which was
really good.

S1 (13:02):
I speak about a scholarship. You got one? Late last
year coincided with International Day for people with disabilities.

S4 (13:08):
That's right. Yes. So it wasn't exactly a scholarship. I
got a, um, a little package. Um, it was a
competition run by Ryde Council, and I sang Hallelujah by
Leonard Cohen. Um, yeah. Please. So I got a recording
studio voucher so I can record a few songs this year.

S1 (13:25):
That's something you kind of aspire to because I know. Well,
at the moment you're not performing, are you?

S4 (13:30):
Not really. I would love to, but, um, not at
the moment. So, yes, I would like to to get
some music out there and find some more recording opportunities. Um, sorry.
Performing opportunities. And I believe with that package that I won.
There was also a contract with Divergent Talent. He did
reach out to me last year, but I'm still waiting
to hear from him. And then they can devise some

(13:50):
kind of plan. So maybe I can find some more
performance opportunities in the future.

S1 (13:54):
Sounds fantastic. So obviously music is a very important, important
part of your life.

S4 (13:57):
Yeah, definitely. Yeah.

S1 (13:59):
And, um, so you obviously are from Sri Lankan background.
I mean, anyone that follows cricket knows that you are
a very well known name, both at the moment and
also in the past. And I believe that your dad
has some connection with the story of some time ago.

S4 (14:15):
Well, not um, yeah. Not, um, we don't really have
a blood connection, but they came from the same village
which was Matara in the south coast. It's a beautiful
coastal village.

S1 (14:25):
Okay. And that's the sort of thing that, uh, I
guess you could dine out on if you wanted to.
It's just a very common name, because I know the
first time I saw it, I think I said to you,
do you follow cricket? Because it's probably a an obvious
question for a cricket fan. Is it a fairly common name.

S4 (14:40):
Yeah. It's, um, I wouldn't say it's it's wholly, uh, like,
greatly common, but there are quite a few jayasuriya's out there.
It's not as common as, you know, da Silva or, uh,
Fernando in Sri Lanka. There's quite a lot of those. Um, but, yeah,
there's a few of us.

S1 (14:56):
Yeah. I think my favourite cricketer. Well, two of my
favourite cricketers, uh, names from Sri Lanka, are Angelo Mathews
and Russel Arnold.

S4 (15:03):
Oh, yes. I do love Russel Arnold's commentary. It's funny
how optimistic he is, even though it's kind of obvious
that the team's going downhill in certain games, but he
he never loses his optimism, so he always gives me
a nice chuckle. But I love his clear tone.

S1 (15:16):
And you see those names and you don't think, uh,
we don't associate them with Sri Lanka necessarily? Yeah, I
didn't that's true.

S4 (15:22):
Yeah. So I guess that's um. Yeah, we call them.
That was something else I learned in my research. So
those names come from what we call the burgher population,
which are, um, the people that were kind of a combination,
a mix of the Portuguese, Dutch, British and Sinhalese and Tamil.

S1 (15:39):
Okay. And like Fernando would have that, uh, sort of, uh,
Portuguese background, wouldn't it?

S4 (15:44):
That's right. But it's interesting because some people actually adopted
those names, uh, because during the, the British period, if
you were, you know, a non-English speaker, you couldn't really
get anywhere in society. And this is where this nationalist
movement came from, because when the British were ruling, they banned, um,
children from learning English and Sinhalese in schools. They heard

(16:05):
people speaking the native languages. You'd either get the cane
or I know my grandfather. They used in his class.
They'd have like a little a coin jar. So if
you accidentally spoke your native tongue, you'd have to, you know,
forfeit one of your your coins, your pocket money to
this jar. So that's why, um. Yeah. And some people,
just to get ahead, um, at the times, actually adopted
Portuguese and Dutch names, even the singer that I was studying.

(16:28):
So he's, um, original last name was Pereira, which is, um,
I believe a Portuguese name, but he adopted A stage name,
which he actually kind of. He later formally changed his
name as well.

S1 (16:41):
I bet it's been great chatting to you. Congratulations on
your PhD. And thank you for, um, really fascinating, uh,
chatting to sort of music and history and culture. It's been, uh, wonderful.
Thank you for your time.

S6 (16:51):
You're welcome.

S1 (16:52):
It's, uh, doctor Abby Jayasuriya talks about her PhD, uh,
I completed a little while ago, but certainly a wonderful
snapshot of the amount of work that went into it.
What a wonderful addition. Last year, Mia Gardner from Crimestoppers
Victoria was on the program. Good news. Mia is back

(17:13):
for another year. A little late, Mia, but happy to
hear and great to have you back with us.

S7 (17:17):
Thank you so much, Peter, and happy New Year to
you as well.

S1 (17:20):
Now, a very important topic. Uh, home safety. We've talked about, uh,
cyber safety in the past, but, uh, our very own home, uh,
our own castle. We need to think about protecting it.

S7 (17:29):
Absolutely. So the thing about home security is, it's probably
the Probably the most important time to talk about it.
You know, more than ever. Last year, we saw record
highs of aggravated burglaries. And so the difference between a
burglary and an aggravated one, if you're not entirely sure,
is that aggravated burglaries are when someone is in the house, when,
you know, robbers and burglars appear. So there's so many

(17:52):
things that you can do. But yeah, there's quite a
few different tips. I would say that smart locks, you know,
they're quite a unique thing that not everyone has. But
you don't think about all the ways in which people
can get into your house. So smart locks what they
do is they enhance security because they allow remote access,
and it eliminates the risk of, you know, lost keys

(18:12):
because that's always a fear. Duplicated keys. And it enables
features like auto locking. And you can have user specific codes.
And sometimes they do integrate with a home security system.
And they can notify homeowners of any suspicious activity. So
someone trying to, you know, jingle the the your door
handle or Handle or anything like that, you'll be alerted

(18:33):
to that fact. But, you know, there's obviously hacking risks
or power or Wi-Fi outage risks and even user error.
You forget to lock your door as you do with
a regular key. But home security, obviously, we're so, so
lucky to live in Australia, but it's still really important
that we think about these things.

S1 (18:51):
So this is this is different to your conventional lock
on your conventional door, as you say. It's got the
sort of added benefits of not having to be there
when you're locking or unlocking.

S7 (19:00):
Absolutely. And it's, I suppose, a lazy person's dream. You
can be upstairs and you can click lock and the
tour downstairs will lock. But you can also think about
a lot of the time people can access to power boxes, obviously,
because the council need to be able to get to
your power box and it's often on the outside of
the house. Getting a smart lock on that is a
great sort of tip as well, because the council often

(19:23):
have access or special keys because there's a special smart
lock for a power box, and this can stop people
from turning power off in your house, which, you know,
obviously burglars, they thrive in darkness. And as well as
disabling any sort of security cameras you have or security alarms.
So having a smart lock on your power box is

(19:43):
also a great tip. And yeah, locking your door, your
internal door between your garage and your house, that can
often be overlooked. A lot of the time when people
have some some people have an automatic garage, they open it,
they close it, and they walk through their connecting door
and they forget to lock that. But it's very easy
to open a garage door without a remote. So it's

(20:05):
basically like leaving your house unlocked. So you've got to
be really careful that you're considering all entry points. And
if you have the means getting a smart lock, if
not making sure they're locked and making sure that you're,
you know, double checking these things.

S1 (20:18):
Me made a great point regarding the darkness, and I
guess the ability of those undesirables to hang out in it.
But that goes to another point that you made regarding
some equipment they can get that gets the light to
come on, which can obviously, uh, startle a would be burglar.

S7 (20:33):
Absolutely. So I have them. They're so great. And motion
activated light in my sort of driveway pointing at my
front door. So this really deters intruders. They're illuminated. Maybe
they didn't think they'd be detected. They noticed that you
can see them. It alerts maybe neighbors to the presence
of an undesirable sort of walking into your house. And

(20:55):
it increases visibility. Like I said, people driving past can
see that there's someone there and they're not feeling like
they're shrouded in the sort of safety blanket that is
night time. And it's, you know, also energy efficient in
that it only uses power when movement is detected. So
if you think, oh, that's expensive to have a light
on all the time, it's not going to be it's

(21:15):
going to be there at night when someone's moving. Yes.
Every now and then my lights are triggered by things
like cats in my driveway in the middle of the
night or a bird flying past, But really they are
pretty accurate and they do just give you that sort
of safety net of illumination that no one could be
creeping around in the darkness and hiding because, yeah, they're

(21:38):
exposed instantly by a motion activated light.

S1 (21:41):
But what about sort of closed circuit televisions that can
record stuff that's going on? What do you think of those?

S7 (21:48):
Well, I have a ring camera, which is just one
brand and there are many, and it's a really great
sort of tool because you do get a notification straight
to your phone and there's a video that you can save,
you can download these sorts of things, for example, are
submitted to Crime Stoppers constantly because they really do assist
in police investigations. CCTV security footage. And they're often motion

(22:12):
triggered as well. And they are connected with that, um,
with those motion activated lights. So the camera will start
recording as soon as the lights get activated. So it's really,
really good. And it adds that adds that extra layer
of security. But sometimes even just, you know, someone seeing
a camera can be enough to deter them picking your house.

(22:33):
So the camera can be the deterrent that you need
rather than, you know, the thing you use to catch
the the burglar. It's the same as like a dog sign.
Even the dog might not be there, but you've got
a sign saying beware of the dog. Um, and that
can be enough to deter someone. Well as well.

S1 (22:52):
Someone's got to take that chance and think that might
be a sign that's not real. Or take a chance
and be real. And maybe the dog bite their leg off. So, uh.

S6 (23:01):
Exactly.

S1 (23:02):
You take your chances as to what you think the, uh,
the setup might be. We're talking about inside your home
against some really great tips. I found this one really
interesting regarding safes.

S7 (23:12):
Yes. So if you rely on a basic safe, which
is often what most people would buy, you know you're not.
If you're investing in a safe, you might just think
that one will do. It's a safe. but sometimes they're
lightweight and they can just be picked up and carried away.
And if someone can just pick it up and carry
it away, and then when they're at their own house
or wherever, they can then cut it open with power

(23:33):
tools and it's really not done its job. It's just been,
you know, a little bit heavier for them to get
out of your house. But instead, what you should do
is you should anchor your safe to the floor. So
this is you could screw it in. You got it
drilled into the ground or in the wall or wherever
it is that it? It is located. Get it built
into your wardrobe or whatever the case may be. You

(23:54):
also want to consider if it's things like family heirlooms,
really important things to you. You might want to make
it fireproof and waterproof as well. We live in a very,
you know, tumultuous sort of weather country. We've got floods,
we've got bushfires which are, you know, unfortunately happening all
the time. And you just want to make sure that
that's safe might be that last thing standing if the

(24:16):
worst comes to worse.

S1 (24:17):
Yeah. As you point out, the fires and bushfires by
bushfires and floods both at the same time in the
one country, which is kind of disturbing, but that's the
country we live in. And if people do get inside
your home, I guess, you know, not making things too
obvious as far as where you might be assessing things away.

S7 (24:35):
Absolutely. So there are the classic places that we hide things,
and it's sort of the same as online safety in
that using very obvious or simple passwords puts your digital
assets and your digital accounts at risk. So does hiding
valuables in really obvious places, because this will be the
first places that burglars look. So, you know, jewelry in

(24:55):
a sock drawer, cash, you know, under the mattress. These
are the places that burglars will check first. So you
can use decoy safes like hollowed out books. Um, people
can't tell it's a safe. It just looks like a
book on the shelf. Obviously, this is a little bit
spy like, but if you've got these things that are
really valuable to you, then it wouldn't hurt putting them
somewhere that you think they won't be found.

S1 (25:17):
What about taking photos of things?

S7 (25:19):
I would say that you can take photos of things
so that you remember where they were. I would say
that your digital assets are so, so important. And having safe,
a safe online presence is, you know, an absolute must.
And for example, things like when you're on holiday and

(25:39):
you're on vacation and you've left the house unattended and
you're posting photos on Instagram saying that you're away, that
could put your house sort of in the firing line
because they know someone might see it's unattended and you
don't know how private your accounts are. So if you
are on holiday sharing photos on Instagram, I would just
wait until you're home to do that.

S1 (26:00):
Yeah. And also, I know you talk about not putting
sort of important documents on just the hard drive, but
maybe using the cloud to, uh, to sort of save
them too.

S7 (26:11):
Well, yes. If you're keeping it, your important documents on
a hard drive, say it's in your home, in the study,
on a desk somewhere. It's important to have them backed
up somewhere else, because if someone sees it and just
decides to grab it, whether they use what's on there
or not, it might be important to you and not them,
but people will not return it. If they find that
it's not valuable to them, they will just get rid

(26:32):
of it. So it's really important that, yeah, anything that's
valuable to you, whether you think it's valuable to someone else,
is stored in a secure location.

S1 (26:40):
What about as far as things that we can do
as a kind of a night time routine.

S6 (26:46):
As a night time.

S7 (26:47):
Routine? There is some sort of things that I think
you should be doing every night. Check all doors and
windows that are locked, that they're secure. Um, activate any
sort of alarms and security cameras you have. Some of
them have at home functions. So basically, by putting them on,
you're saying that the amount of people that are in
the house right now, that's how it's going to stay.

(27:07):
And then it will alert you if someone else enters.
It's a really great thing to have if you are
living somewhere by yourself as well, or you know, it's
just two of you with a roommate and you feel
like that would be a great way to wake you
up and keep you safe. Store any valuables out of sight. Um.
And double check. Outdoor lights are working. Potentially. Don't have

(27:27):
to do that one every night, but it's a great
thing to do every now and then. Make sure that
your garage, the connecting door is closed and your garage
is secure. Um, as well as vehicles, you don't want
to put the keys to your car in the bowl
at the front door, because that's where the first place
that anyone's going to look. If they do get.

S6 (27:45):
In.

S1 (27:45):
They will hear about so many people were being broken
into or their home being broken into, their garage being
broken into. They pinch the car and off they go.

S7 (27:53):
Absolutely. That's one of the main reasons why these aggravated
burglaries are occurring. And a lot of aggravated burglaries lead
to motor theft or auto vehicle theft. So I think
that you're seeing a connection and that's often what they're
looking for. But if you are as well a young
woman at home by herself, sometimes, you know, the intentions

(28:14):
are even more sinister. So keeping your your sort of
fortress secure is so important and you should feel safe
at home. Everyone deserves to feel safe. So by doing these,
it might give you that little bit more peace of mind. Um,
and you might be able to sleep that little bit easier.

S1 (28:31):
I knew I noticed even things like, for example, you know,
close the curtains and don't leave a laptop, you know,
visible from outside. I mean, kind of think, well, of course,
but I guess, you know, that that moment that you
don't think about doing that or I'm a bit tired,
I'm going to go to bed or I'll, you know,
I'll move that in the morning or whatever. That could
be the, the one time that you should have, uh,
you know, taken out of public view.

S7 (28:53):
Yes. And I do think that if anything like that happens,
it's such a traumatic experience. And you'd rather prevent it
than just, you know, be able to handle that situation
in the moment. I would say that locking your doors,
making sure that you are making yourself very hardened to
burglary and aggravated burglary is your best defense. Really, you
want to make sure make sure that there's everything set
up in place to make your house the most, you know,

(29:16):
unappealing sort of house to rob of them all. Make them. Um,
and you can do this with the help of neighbors.
So if you are away, you want to get your
neighbors to help you out. You want to make sure that,
you know, they could be taking your bins out, getting
your mail and things like this just so you've always
got a lived in look, but you also have that
sort of secure fortress look as well.

S1 (29:37):
Well, the things that are kind of, uh, you know,
obvious in many respects, but things that we can kind of, uh,
you know, let it slip from our mind or from
our attention from time to time. So it's really good
for us to be reminded. And you certainly do a
great job of that. Now, people want to find out more.
You've got lots of other information on your website, and
people can also contact you by phone.

S7 (29:55):
Absolutely. So if you do want to have a look at,
we've got a whole home security checklist, which is actually
really helpful if you want to just even if you
do it once and then forget about it, but just
go through it and just see sort of how how
much security you've got in place. You can find that
on our website, along with a lot of lot of
other resources at Crimestopperswa.com.au. And if you do happen, for example,

(30:15):
to know anyone that's out there burgling homes and, and
and up to any sort of suspicious or illegal activity,
you can make a report to Crimestoppers anonymously. And that's
you can call us on one 803 000. Or you
can also use the website where we've got a brand
new reporting platform.

S1 (30:34):
Where we might talk about that in coming months. May
I welcome back. Great to have you with us. We'll
catch up again every month throughout the year. But, uh,
a fabulous session to, uh, kick it off and, you know,
may may save someone a bit of heartache and a
bit of stress and a bit of tension with some
of the tips you've given us. So thank you.

S7 (30:50):
Thank you so much, Peter. I hope it does.

S1 (30:52):
Yeah. Gardner there from Crime Stoppers. Victoria, all the information
up with our show notes. You're listening to.

S8 (31:00):
Focal Point on beating Australia radio and television, Am radio,
digital and online at VA radio.

S1 (31:09):
Well, the show that everyone is waiting for at the
Adelaide Fringe this year, vistas and Vistas of a Blind Man,
starring Tony Doyle, is happening March 1st. Tony's on the line. Tony. Hello.

S9 (31:20):
Hi, Peter. Hi, folks.

S1 (31:22):
How are you going? How's the preparation coming along?

S9 (31:24):
Well, there's a lot of preparation. Putting on a fringe
show these days is more involved than it used to be.
It's a multi-arts show, so, you know, there are different
elements to get together, but, you know, there's a group
of us working on it. My wife Jane and myself
have been working on it. It's all coming together. And

(31:45):
I think by March the 1st, it's going to be
a clean and crisp and beautiful, if not beautiful, hopefully
engaging and funny.

S1 (31:54):
I'm sure it will be. Now, with the greatest of respect,
you're an old pro. You've been around for a long time.
Does that hold you in good stead or there's still
a few pre-show nerves?

S9 (32:02):
Look, I'm not sure about pre-show nerves. I won't know until, Uh, like,
you know, a little bit. A bit before the show starts, but, um,
I'll be so busy trying to remember all the bits
and pieces because I've got to remember, you know, various
pieces of music. Uh, what keys they're in all that stuff.
I've got to remember my, uh, my comedy routine, and, um,

(32:25):
I've got to, you know, remember the sequences of the
show and all the rest of it. So there's a
fair bit there. I think I'm going to be too
busy to be nervous.

S1 (32:35):
That's what I think. I was going to ask you,
there is so much in the show and, you know,
you're kind of front and center, which is understandable. What
about kind of memorizing it all that it's all from
memory because you're not unable to refer to, say, notes?

S9 (32:46):
No. Look, I've tried things in the past, you know,
I've done a little bit of stand up comedy where
I tried to use, uh, you know, electronic gizmo in
my ear and do trigger notes, but always something goes
wrong as I realized I'm better off. you know, relying

(33:07):
on my memory and ad libbing, you know? Um, so
when you're trying, you know, and I've done conference things,
talks where I've tried to use recordings in my ear
and it's it's a bit stultifying, you know, it's worked
to some extent, but no, I'm, I'm trying to use
my memory kind of old and gnarled as it is, um,

(33:31):
to remember it all. So, you know.

S1 (33:33):
Well, maybe it's the sort of thing that the more
you use it, the better you get at it to.
Maybe it's kind of preventing anything from going bad as
far as the memory issues go.

S9 (33:41):
Well, I'm hoping all this, you know, it's all creativity. Uh, and,
you know, I'm 76 years old, and, um, it's not
a time to to to kind of give up or
slow down or anything. It's it's being creative. I think
that keeps you kind of alive and connected. Yeah. It's
a different world now to organize things in. It's a

(34:03):
it's an online world. In the in the past, I've
always done things through dialogue with people and agreements and
contracts and things. Now everything's online. It's a different world.
So I've had to, you know, with the help of
my wife Jane, I've had to kind of overcome the

(34:23):
hurdles of, uh, you know, everything being done on computer
rather than through dialogue or conversation with people.

S1 (34:33):
Maybe the world isn't quite as good as it used
to be in that respect. I tell you, you chose
an interesting one if you've chosen it, but it's an
interesting venue. Tell us about that.

S9 (34:40):
Well, look, you know, we had the launch, uh, which
was mainly targeting blind and partially sighted people at the
wassail wine bar, and we had quite a few people
there and a lovely atmosphere, and, um, that went well.
But for the fringe show, I wanted somewhere in the
central hub. I didn't want to be stuck out somewhere,

(35:01):
you know, in the burbs. I don't mean that too negatively,
but I wanted to be in that central hub where
the fringe stuff is happening. And I thought, you know,
Ayres house is a, you know, a pretty highly respected venue.
And I thought, well, you know, I think I should
be there. So, you know, so that's where I'm going. And, um,

(35:25):
I'm excited about that as a venue because it's an
older Adelaide iconic building.

S1 (35:31):
Yeah.

S9 (35:32):
And of course, there's a fully licensed bar there. Yeah. So,
you know, people that like to have a glass of
wine before a show can go there a little bit
earlier and, um, you know, have a glass or two
and limber up for the show. And, um, we're in
the ballroom. And I just thought, well, you know, and

(35:55):
he was the music of the, uh, six piece music
ensemble called orchid. It's like a fusion between folk and
classical influences. And and we've got our own sound, you know,
and it's, you know, I think it's a pretty kind of, um,
an appropriate venue for our musicality and our sound and,

(36:18):
you know, and with the poetry, there'll be some serious stuff.
I say this, there'll be some that pin you to
the wall, and there'll be some that make you laugh
like an idiot. I like the mixture of both, you know, but, uh,
so I think that we're in a bit of a
serious world at the moment. You know, there are a
few tipping points lurking there. Um, I don't think it's

(36:39):
the the happy happiest of worlds at the moment. And
so some of my poetry is, you know, confronting things
like that. But mind you, I've written poems about absolutely
everything conceivable. But then I do try and offset the
serious with some, uh, humorous and Humorous. An absurdist kind
of poems, uh, which, you know, it's good. Always good

(37:02):
to get a laugh from people. And then, you know,
halfway through the show, I'm doing my, uh, stand up
blonde comedy routine just to give people a bit of, uh,
you know, light relief and all that. And, um, I'm
kind of looking forward to that because I've only had
a little bit of experience in, in this area. But, um,
I did, um, on a comedy cruise, I11 the, uh,

(37:26):
the passengers, uh, comedy effort, uh, on one occasion, but
the next, the next time I went on, I got
gonged off. So, you know, who knows? But I'm kind
of looking forward to that, because I think making people
laugh has to be one of the gifts of life,
like music. And, um, I suppose like being creative in general.

(37:46):
But yeah, so it's a multi arts show. There's, there
are poems read by a synthesized version of my voice.
So it's not me. It's not even exactly how I
would read it, read them. But, um, at the same token,
at the launch, people thought it was me reading my
poems or reciting, you know, memorizing my poems until they

(38:07):
realized my mouth wasn't moving. And, uh.

S1 (38:11):
Well, the people wouldn't have seen your mouth not moving.
So that got in.

S9 (38:16):
And then they didn't know a bloody.

S1 (38:17):
Thing. I can't even have a bit of a bump
in because, you know, sometimes, like being, um, acclimatized to
your surroundings. Is that important to you or are you
just going to rock up on the day and away
you go?

S9 (38:29):
I'm going to rock up on the day and walk
into walls. It was. It's what I'm used to. Peter, uh, look, I,
I do want to go and have a look at
the ballroom again and get the feel of it a
bit more and pace it out. Yeah. So that is
important to me, uh, to know the space a little bit.

(38:50):
Uh oh. By the way, when I think about it,
we do take companion cards. Mhm. I don't think that's, uh,
down on the fly, but we will accept companion cards. Uh,
so any blind people that need to bring a carer or,
or whatever, that's a goer. The concession rate is pretty reasonable.

(39:12):
At $26. The full price is 32. But look, you know,
I can guarantee it will be a thoroughly entertaining show. And, oh,
even one of the players in our music ensemble, Suzanne,
is a hoot. She was the main, um, harpist in
the Adelaide uh Symphony Orchestra for many, many years. So

(39:36):
she's one of our six muses, but she's doing a
15 minute, uh, solo harp recital to start the show off,
and that is not to be missed. She is the
most beautiful and, um, engaging Aging. Heart. Heart. Player. And so.
And she's bringing her big orchestral harp, which is a

(39:59):
a big brute, which makes wonderful sounds.

S1 (40:02):
I was going to say it's a lovely sound, isn't it?
A harp played well. That'll be great. Now, bookings have opened.
It's still a little under a month away. The 1st
of March. Uh, but it's, uh, bookings have opened.

S9 (40:13):
Bookings have opened. Uh, we're selling tickets. They're going pretty well. And, um,
so I do encourage people to make your bookings sooner
than later because it's a one off show. It'll only
fit 100 people in and they're booking fast. So if
you do want to go, it's a great one to
bring family members or friends to because they'll they'll have

(40:35):
a they'll just have a thoroughly good time. And it
this is a unique show. There won't be anything else
like it in the whole fringe. And um, and there's
not going to be anything else in the fringe that's
generated from a blind person.

S1 (40:49):
Well, nothing. Nothing, nothing at the at the fringe worth
getting to apart from this. Actually, I probably shouldn't say
that because I might get some more fringe interviews, so
that probably won't help.

S9 (40:58):
But no, I'd have to reiterate that piece. Hey, listen, folks,
don't bother about the rest of the fringe. Just come
to this show, you know? It'll meet all your needs,
you know, sadness, laughter, you know, silly looks on your face,
all the rest of it. So it's the show not
to be missed.

S1 (41:17):
Terrific.

S9 (41:19):
It's on March the 1st.

S1 (41:20):
March the 1st.

S9 (41:21):
It's Saturday afternoon. Yep. 230 to 4. And if you
want a glass of wine or a beer, get there
about two. There's a bar and a lovely area to
sit down and just have a drink first, just before
the show starts.

S1 (41:37):
We'll put the details up with our show notes as
to how people can book. I look forward to seeing
you there.

S9 (41:42):
I look forward to seeing you, Peter. We've chatted a
fair bit. We haven't kind of bumped heads for a while.

S1 (41:48):
For a little while, but I think we. I think
we still recognize each other.

S9 (41:51):
Well, I think so. And I've still got a bump
on my head from the last time.

S1 (41:56):
Can I just say.

S9 (41:57):
All right. See you. Peter.

S1 (41:59):
Changed all the star of vistas and visions of a
blind man. That's on March the 1st at the ballroom
at Ayres House, North Terrace, and all decals up with
our show dates as far as you can. Book and book.

S10 (42:12):
Early book often we who?

S1 (42:17):
We've recently launched a new program here on Vision Australia
Radio Inside Voice. You can catch it Thursday afternoons at 430.
Repeated Monday afternoon. It's also at 430 and on podcast.
We'll give you those details shortly, but let's speak to
the person who's very much responsible for it. Damien. Damien,
great to meet you and thank you for your time.

S11 (42:36):
Oh, thanks for having me on. It's always be great
to it's always great to be on the radio. Yeah.

S1 (42:40):
For sure. Well, tell us a bit about how this
has all come about. You're the editor for, uh, a
paper called Paper Change or a to a publication called
Paper Change.

S11 (42:48):
Yeah. That's right. Um, so I became involved in that in, uh,
when it first started up in 2017. And then I
became the editor in 2021.

S1 (42:56):
So it's about the, uh, the publication. Uh, obviously it's
got a very powerful story behind it. Uh, tell us
a bit about that.

S11 (43:03):
Yeah. So it's definitely, um, uh, a bit a bit
unique in terms of current publications. So, um, I was
in a prison, uh, about, uh, ten years ago now, and, um, I,
I wanted to study and I wanted to get mental
health treatment, but, uh, neither of those options were available.
And so I turned to art and writing as a

(43:23):
way to rehabilitate myself, I guess, and just to keep
busy and active. Um, so it was quite depressing. There
was nothing to do. And, um, I kept asking around,
has anyone ever heard of a magazine for prisoners to
submit art and writing to? And everyone was like, you
know what? What are you talking about? There's there's nothing
like that. Um, there have been many over the, um, decades,

(43:43):
but there hadn't been one for about, about 12 years. Um,
when I was in prison. And so, um, I said,
you know what? When I get out, I'm going to
help start one up. And, um, thankfully, somebody else had
the exact same idea. And so I came on board
with her. That was in 2017. And, um, she put that, um,
journal out annually. And, um, after about 4 or 5 years, uh,

(44:05):
she said she couldn't do it anymore. She, you know,
I just had a paid employment and, uh, and a family,
and she she'd been self-financing it, and, um, asked if
I was willing to take it over, and, um, even
though I had neither the time nor the money. Um,
I decided to try and keep it alive because I
knew how much difference that would have made to my
mental health when I was in prison. And, um, I

(44:26):
put one issue out, and then I realized how unsustainable
it was in terms of time and money. So I, um,
I applied for funding. And long story short, um, the
really great people at the Community Restorative Center are not
for profit in Sydney. Um, offered to pay me to
make the magazine, so I, I accidentally created a job
for myself, and it's my dream job. I really love it.

S1 (44:45):
Yeah. Well done. It's such a cool name to it
as well, isn't it? It's, you know, a little bit
of a a double entendre, if you like.

S11 (44:52):
Yeah. Um, the previous editor. I have to give her
the credit for that. Uh, but, yeah, we, we get
a lot of good feedback about about the name and
also the content as well. Yeah.

S1 (45:00):
What about the content? I mean, it's interesting what you
said about, uh, you know, it was depressing, which I
think we can all kind of associate with and not
much to do. Do you have difficulty getting content for
the for the publication?

S11 (45:13):
Not anymore. Um, when I first came on board, you know,
I reached out to the previous editor and I said, oh,
can I had the same idea. Can I help you?
And she's like, yes, please. Um, I'm having a lot
of trouble getting content because it's really difficult to get
the word out in prison that something exists. You can't
really go up to the walls and, you know, shout
at them. And, you know, obviously they don't have the internet. And, um, and,
you know, if you don't have their details, you can't,

(45:34):
you know, write to them and everything. And not that,
you know, a mass writing campaign would have an effect, like,
you know, the best way to get the word out. But, um,
so I use some of my existing contacts, like I
knew people inside that were artists. And so I wrote
to them and, and, uh, the first four issues that
she put out and the first one that I put
out myself as well, um, we were struggling to get
enough contributions just because it was difficult to get the

(45:55):
word out. Um, sometimes, like a new person would only
find out the magazine existed because someone who was already
on the mailing list would be moved to that person,
and then they'd take it with them, and then other
people would find out it existed. But, um, these days
I actually have to apologize to people because people will
send me a poem and I'll write back saying, thank you,
I love this, I will share it. But at the
moment the backlog is about two issues because, um, yeah,

(46:19):
we get much more stuff than we can print in a,
in a in a short period of time. Um, especially because, um,
with the funding we've gone up to quarterly, but still, that's,
you know, only four times a year. So, um, these
days I get, if anything, um, I don't want to
say too many, um, because I enjoy reading them, and
it's actually great to have things in advance, but we

(46:39):
get more than I'm able to print in a timely manner.

S1 (46:43):
Now, you mentioned at the beginning you've actually written while
you've been, uh, incarceration. Can that kind of be cathartic?
Can that help or how much can that help?

S11 (46:51):
Yeah. Um, absolutely. Sometimes, like, even if you don't want
to have your stuff published because there's often, you know, um,
obviously there's, there's no internet. Um, and phones are only
available at certain points during the day, and even then,
they're very expensive. Um, every state is different, but in
New South Wales it costs $2.80 for a phone call,
which is limited at ten minutes. And that's one of

(47:13):
the cheapest states. Um, in in Victoria, it's about $7
for a 12 minute phone call. And then obviously then,
you know, there's no privacy. Um, there are other people
waiting in line. And so, um, writing for me, I
found was one of the main ways I got through, uh,
my sentence because I was able to get those feelings out. Um,
the overwhelming number of writing contributions we get are poetry. Uh,

(47:36):
that's typically how, Um, people want to express themselves and,
you know, um, the magazine's made freely available online, but
the target audience is is definitely people in prison. And,
you know, I've had people on the outside say, you know, Damien,
this is a really fantastic publication. But I find it
a little bit depressing because a lot of the poems
are about, you know, um, missing your family and like,

(47:57):
giving up hope and, and some of them do, uh,
touch on, on, on suicide or suicidal ideations and, um,
but the thing is that for people inside hearing that
other people say those things, um, is if anything is
going to make them feel like they're understood and they're
heard and that other people know what, what they're going through.
But yeah, we, uh, writing can actually absolutely be a

(48:19):
huge help. And it's the only really way that you
have to communicate with people at any time. Like, you know,
when I was in prison, sometimes I would stay up
late at night and write people, you know, um, 612
I think I once sent a really close friend, like
a 16 page letter, uh, which, um, you know, letter
writing is a bit of a lost art, but, um,
you know, people in prison are to an extent keeping

(48:41):
keeping that alive a bit. But, um, yeah, writing is
absolutely helpful and so is art. And, and and it's
a shame that, um, prisons don't focus a lot on
those things because they're very obsessed with, like, rehabilitation courses
that have a start and an end. And you can
get a certificate, you know, and then they can say, look,
we we put, you know, so and so many people

(49:01):
through this course. But I think it's things like art
that actually, um, you know, like and like ongoing things
like helping people learn how to read things that don't
actually have a start and end that's just ongoing, that
actually provide the most, you know, support and rehabilitation for people. Um,
studies consistently show that rehabilitation in prison comes more from
the process of, you know, learning, you know, and working

(49:24):
with others rather than the certificate you get at the end.

S1 (49:27):
Often in the era of disability and people with disabilities
are overrepresented when it comes to incarceration, goes we talk about,
you know, lived experience. So someone that can identify with
someone who's been through a similar sort of thing. Are
you able to kind of get your message out there to,
you know, people that are running, running prisons to governments, etc.
to kind of talk about just the sort of stuff

(49:48):
you've talked about now to kind of make the rehabilitation
even more, I guess, rounded, if I can put it
that way. I take your point about, you know, a
beginning and an end to a certificate, but there's so
much more than that.

S11 (49:59):
Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, I um, also because, you know,
I don't want to get us banned, you know, um, I,
you know, I do allow some constructive criticism. In fact,
I actually think it's quite healthy to allow prisoners to
do that. Um, there was a publication started in prison
in the UK, um, many years ago, explicitly for that purpose.
They found that if they gave, um, you know, prisoners

(50:20):
a constructive way to complain, um, that, um, you know,
they could actually reduce tension in the prison because they
felt like they, you know, you know, got it out
a bit. But, um, I absolutely try to have a
very positive message in the magazine. And, you know, I
hope people who work in corrections also read it and
get some ideas because, you know, I point out programs
that actually work and success stories. And, you know, I

(50:42):
just finished our last night typing up an interview. I did, um,
for the next issue of Paper Chain, which is about the, um,
the film sing, Sing, which has just been nominated for
three Academy Awards. And I actually did an interview with
someone who was heavily involved in that film. And, um,
but the point, um, the film's all about, um, a theatrical, um,
production in prisons in New York and how much that

(51:03):
assisted with rehabilitation and. Yeah. And I mean, it's a
great story to share, but, um, also, I'm hoping people
read it and think and somebody, you know, higher ranking
somewhere reads it and says, hey, you know, actually that's
really good. Why don't we do that in our prisons?
Because there wasn't anything like that when I was inside
at least.

S1 (51:20):
Great point. Yeah. I mean, you're a great example of what, um,
a person who's been incarcerated and comes out can can do.
You're also doing a PhD at the moment.

S11 (51:29):
Um. That's correct. So, um, yeah, I like I like
I said, when I was in prison, I was like,
has there ever been a prison magazine? And everyone's like, no,
what are you talking about? And then after I got out,
I was like, you know, myself and the person who
started that paper, we can't be the only people who
thought this was a good idea. And so I started digging,
and I was kind of overwhelmed, you know, I was
expecting I was expecting to find, you know, maybe a
100 or a couple hundred issues of prison magazines, like

(51:52):
historical ones. As of last count, I now have 1006.
I went through all the state libraries and, um, many
former prisons and, um, I said, you know, do you
have any copies of prison magazines? And, um, a lot
of them did. And also, like a lot of them, um,
the state libraries of Victoria and Western Australia, they both
said the same thing to me. They're like, um, I
don't think anyone's ever borrowed these before. They've just been

(52:14):
kind of like, you know, left in the archives. And, um,
so yeah, now I'm doing a PhD that focuses on
the intersection between, um, historical, um, prison magazines and also, like, um,
what prisoners have expressed in them. And, um, one of
the big ones not surprising is, lack of access to healthcare. Um,
don't want to go off too much of a tangent, but, uh,

(52:34):
for those of you who don't know, um, prisoners are
the only people in Australia, the only Australian citizens, really,
who don't have access to Medicare. And because of that, um,
lots of health services aren't available. And so, um, yeah,
lack of access to healthcare is a big thing. Um,
that's been expressed in prison journalism in the past. So
I'm my PhD is, um, looking at the history of prison, um,
magazines and what prisoners have expressed in them. And the

(52:57):
biggest two things are healthcare. And then also, um, censorship,
which is still a problem.

S1 (53:00):
Yeah, yeah. I mean, we're at a time we could
chat for hours and tell you what, we've got each
other's detail. So when that PhD comes to fruition, let
us know and we'll get you back as the doctor. Damian, uh,
maybe not helping with the Medicare situation, but maybe with
other situations. And now, as I said, uh, inside Voice,
which is, uh, sort of a collaboration, if you like,

(53:22):
between paper chained and also, um, uh, an interview that
we did, uh, with another magazine, About Time, with Joseph
Freeman last year. So they're there. They feature in Inside Voice,
which you can hear, uh, Thursday afternoons at 430. And
it's been repeated Monday afternoons at 430 on the Australian
Radio Network. It's also on our omni page. If people

(53:43):
go there for their podcast. We'll put those details up
on our show notes. That meant good luck. And just
give your paper chain the website of Pod because, uh,
people can go there to check it out. It's obviously
aimed at people who are incarcerated or have been incarcerated,
but it's a feature of the public to access.

S11 (53:59):
Yeah, absolutely. So we're, um, a website is, uh, paper chain.com. Um,
c h a I n e d um, people often
think I'm saying paper chain. Uh, but, um, you know,
paper chain.com. And we're on Instagram at paper Chain as well,
and you can find all the relevant information from there.

S1 (54:16):
It's been great talking to you. Hopefully we can speak again.

S12 (54:18):
Yeah, that'd be really great. I'd love to be.

S11 (54:20):
Back on when PhD is finally finished. Yeah, it's a
long journey, but yeah, we're getting there.

S1 (54:24):
We'll be here for you. Thank you. That's, Danny Lennon there.
One of the people behind Paper Cage and also the
Inside Voice Show, which is now airing on Australia Radio.
If any of the issues Damien touched on have raised
any issues with you, remember you can always contact lifeline
on 13 1114. That's lifeline on 13 1114. If you'd

(54:49):
like to book and see Tony Doyle, you can give
the fringe ticket office a call on 013620125. We spoke
to Tony earlier. If you want to go along and
see him March the 1st one 362 125 audio describe
show of the week. Well it's a double dose coming

(55:09):
up this Sunday evening. 730 as far as SBS main
channel goes. Mysteries of Loch Ness this were the first
episode features the folklore of Loch Ness or Nessie, and
then the first modern sightings in 1930. And then the
second showed at 720, at 825 follows up with the

(55:33):
mysteries of Loch Ness, a bit more of a more
modern view of it. It's rated PG. Both episodes from
730 and then 825. SBS's main channel. Mysteries of Loch
Ness sounds like it could be really, really interesting. Well
worth checking it out. Some birthdays before we go. A

(55:54):
bit of a theme running through these birthday peoples. Philip
Pan having a birthday. Grandpa Phil has been involved with
blind cricket longer than he's been alive. So happy birthday
to you, Phil. Ray Moxley been involved with blind Cricket
a long, long time as well, both as a player
and administrator. Ollie Fanshawe been involved with blind cricket not
so long. He's just a young lad playing for Australia.

(56:15):
And also, happy birthday to Adam Morris. I'm not sure
if Adam has played blind cricket, but certainly has done
some wonderful work in and email lists and sharing of information,
running chat rooms, etc.. So Adam, a very big happy
birthday to you. A past winner of the Australian of
the year award. That's it for the program. Sam Richard,

(56:36):
thanks so much for your help. Pam Green, thanks so much,
as always for yours. Reminding you as we like to
do that focal point is available on that favorite podcast
platform of yours. If you like the show, please tell
a friend. Always room for one more listener on behalf
of Philip Napier. And a big curator, Wendy McDougall, listening in.

(56:57):
This is Peter Greco saying, be kind to yourselves, be
thoughtful and look out for others all being well. Focal
point back at the same time next week on Vision
Australia Radio. This is focal point.