Yanggendyinanyuk emerged from the musty archives of Victoria’s nineteenth-century lunatic asylums. He walked into my life, took hold and would not let go until our journey became a story of truth-telling.

While researching Victoria’s early asylums, the records of ‘Dicky Dick (Aboriginal)’ caught my eye. His resilient and adaptive response to asylum incarceration stood out; of the 11 Aboriginal patients admitted during the mid to late 1800s, Dicky Dick was the only one who did not die within weeks or months of asylum custody. He responded remarkably to the progressive treatment for mental illness pursued in Victoria’s asylums during that period, and was discharged ‘recovered’ after eight months.