Conversations

Prisoner advocate Vickie Roach spent decades in and out of jail but after studying for her masters degree, she helped change the story for thousands of other prisoners.
When Vicki was just two years old, she was given a police record, which enabled authorities to place her into the custody of a family she didn't know.
She grew up under the strict religious rule of her adoptive mother, whom she clashed with frequently.
Vickie left school at thirteen. It was that year she met her birth mother for the first time, and discovered she was Aboriginal.
Decades of trouble followed, including numerous prison terms.
Vickie's also known periods of stability, such as after winning back her son after a long-running custody dispute.
In 2007, Vickie was awarded her Master's degree while serving her final prison sentence at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in Victoria.
She was also the sole plaintiff in a ground-breaking legal challenge to the High Court, which returned some prisoners the right to vote.
Today, Vickie continues her work as an advocate for the rights of women in prison. 
Content warning: episode contains mentions of violence, suicide and drug use
Further information
Vickie appears in ABC TV's You Cant Ask That - Domestic Violence (survivors) episodeVickie was joint winner of the 2017 Tim McCoy Human Rights Award
Adoption resources and support
Jigsaw Australia - search and contact
Find and Connect - support for former residents of children's homes, orphanages and institutions
Post-Adoption Support Benevolent Society AustraliaForced Adoption services Government support services website or, contact the Forced Adoption Support Service in your state or territory, call 1800 21 03 13
Australian Adoptees NetworkFor immediate support, you can call Lifeline 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue 1300 46 36

Growing up Lisa Henson and her siblings spent a lot of time in their father's workshop and studio, watching puppets get drawn, sculpted and brought to life.
Jim Henson first started messing around with puppets as a teenager, and not long afterwards he began collaborating with his wife Jane. 
Together they founded Muppets Incorporated.
Puppets became a way for Jim to share his extraordinary imagination with the world, and he went on to become one of the most influential creative minds of the 20th century. 
His legacy includes Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, and the movies The Dark Crystal and The Labyrinth.
Jim’s creations, Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, and the Cookie Monster remain recognisable and beloved around the world.
Jim Henson died in 1990, but the Jim Henson company is still owned by the family, and his eldest child Lisa is now the CEO.
Further Information 
The Jim Henson exhibition at QAGOMA in Brisbane is on until April 2027
Make, Believe, Magic, The worlds of the of the Jim Henson companyThis episode of Conversations was produced by Jen Leake and the Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.
It explores Jim Henson, Lisa Henson, puppets, The Muppets, Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, creativity, puppetry, The Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, television, animatronics. Frank Oz, Sesame Street, children's television,  Sam and Friends, creativity, technology, Jane Henson, Harvard University, England, The Creature Shop

Author Rebecca Huntley used supervised MDMA therapy to help her with complex PTSD and the legacy of childhood trauma.
Rebecca's public life as a broadcaster, an author and a social researcher made her well-known to many Australians.
But in private, Rebecca spent years grappling with complex PTSD and childhood trauma.
At 50, while walking the Camino, she realised that despite decades of therapy, she was still living with a roiling anger about what had happened to her as a child.
She decided to undergo MDMA therapy delivered by an underground healer. 
Further Information
Rebecca Huntley's book Sassafras is published by Hachette.
Since 2023, psychiatrist in Australia have been authorised to prescribe MDMA as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.
You can read about some of the complications of how MDMA is prescribed here.

Catrine Clay with the story of the children of Nazi perpetrators and Holocaust survivors came together under extraordinary circumstances to come to terms with their dark past.
In the early 1990s, historian and author Catrine Clay was working at the BBC, making a documentary about a woman named Renate.
Renate had been born in Germany in 1941, and grew up in the postwar years as the sole child of a single mother.
When Renate asked her mother about her missing father, she was told he had been an important general in the German forces, who had been imprisoned by the Russians.
But that wasn't the truth.
Renate's father was actually a Nazi war criminal of the highest rank, and she had been conceived as part of an experiment to produce Aryan children for the German fatherland.
Catrine and Renate travelled through Germany and Eastern Europe to find the truth about her father and the home she'd been born into.
Eventually, they go to Israel, where Renate comes face to face with the children of Holocaust survivors. 
There, they bond over their shared attempts to find a way forward, out of the silences and hidden fears of their parents' dark pasts.
Children of the Third Reich: Three pasts three futures is published by Hachette.
This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison
It explores World War II, history, family trauma, intergenerational trauma, holocaust survivors, Aryan super-race, experiments on humans, genetic experiments, SS soldiers, the body keeps the score, Epigenetics, psychology, suicide, mental health, mental illness, healing, Jewish history, reconciliation, German history, Nazis, reckoning with the past, family secrets, absent fathers, Israel, Palestine, forgiveness, humanity, Hitler, war criminal, war crimes.
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Urzila Carlson grew up in South Africa. Her father threatened the family with a gun when she was 6, and he walked out on the family soon afterwards.
Urzila's mum, who she describes as a 'warrior woman', raised Urzila and her sister.
When she was in primary school, one of Urzila's teachers taught her a big lesson about regret, which has stayed with her for life.
Urzila moved to New Zealand in 2006 to begin working in advertising.
One day a group of her co-workers persuaded her to perform at a local open mic night.
Within a year she had become a professional comedian in Australia and New Zealand.
Further information
Watch Urzila's latest comedy special 
Watch Urzila's TV sketch show on ABC TV
This episode of Conversations was produced by Nicola Harrison and the Executive Producer was Pam O'Brien.
It explores South Africa, comedy, family, domestic violence, alcoholism, Afrikaans, racism, violence, home invasion, stand up comedy, confidence, body image, migration, New Zealand, Australia, memoir, siblings.