The Torch, a First Peoples-led arts organization in Victoria, Australia, runs a program supporting Indigenous artists who have experienced incarceration. Its annual exhibition, Confined 17, features nearly 500 artworks by 424 First Nations artists at the Glen Eira City Council gallery in Naarm. The organization provides art materials, cultural connection, and economic support, with artists receiving 100% of their income from sales. Participants like Tegan, a Palawa woman, describe improvising with food dye in prison to create watercolor-style works, while CEO Susannah Day and founder Kent Morris emphasize the program's role in reducing reincarceration rates.
The Torch's work matters because it demonstrates a proven model for reducing reincarceration among Indigenous Australians: artists connected to the program have a reincarceration rate of about 20%, compared to the national average of 55–65%. The organization also contributed to changing Victoria's Aboriginal arts policy after 40 years of advocacy, showing how culturally-led programs can achieve systemic change. By centering Indigenous leadership and economic justice, The Torch offers a pathway for healing, dignity, and community connection that challenges the hyper-incarceration of First Nations people.