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A veteran actor and a pioneer in aboriginal theatre, Uncle Jack Charles is an Australian original. He's also a former heroin addict and cat burglar who spent many years behind bars. It's all part of his life, which he talks and sings about in his one-man play Jack Charles v the Crown, getting its Toronto premiere next week as part of Canadian Stage's spotlight on Australia series. The Globe and Mail spoke with the charismatic raconteur on the day after he (voluntarily) visited an Ontario corrections facility.

You recently visited Beaver Creek Institution, in Gravenhurst, Ont. May I ask why?

It's always been a passion of mine, to try and see prisons other than the ones in my own state in Australia.

With which you're highly familiar, I understand.

Well, yes. I've been a guest [laughs]. And I'm proud that I'm a survivor. My prison stays didn't wreck my brain. I made use of my time in prison. I learned the fine art of ceramics there. I became the hotshot potter of the prisons in Victoria. I taught pottery. It was my job. And the pottery shops in prison were my place of sanctuary from the madding crowd of gangsters and drug-addled angry minds and all that.

When you go back into prisons now, what do you do there?

I go there to tweak the prisoners' minds and consciences. My job is to rekindle the burning embers of their dreams. You have to take yourself seriously in order to break away from being a dedicated recidivist.

You were in your 60s when you finally broke free from the prison cycle yourself. How?

It was the right time for me. I wish somebody my vintage had come in and tweaked my consciousness and said the right kinds of words to me. But I'm doing that now, through my words and my life, I'm helping them see the right direction. That's what elders do. To share their journey.

You've performed the play Jack Charles v the Crown in Canada before. What kind of response did you get?

Yes, I brought it to Calgary, Vancouver and Ottawa. In Calgary and Vancouver, the shows were jam-packed with First Nations people. I'm trying to see where I belong and who I really am. It all unfolds in the play. They totally got it. They saw their own lives reflected in my story.

As a baby, you were taken from your parents under an assimilation program and spent your childhood in a boys' home. How did that affect you?

It whitewashed me. I was the only aboriginal in the institution. I had no interest in my aboriginality. I was called a little black bastard and all that stuff. It took a long time to receive the information about my heritage.

A lot of your trouble with the law as an adult had to do with heroin addiction, and burglary to support the habit. How did you pick up the habit?

There were a lot of drugs and drink in the black fellas' camps. A lot of opium. A lot of Chinese people around. Chinese people and aboriginal people got along very well. They're both despised by white people. We looked after each other.

How did you get off drugs?

I finally took my aboriginality seriously. And by accepting the notion that I had grey hair and that everybody's respecting me – even the prison staff. So, I had to understand that role, to be an elder statesman.

And are you comfortable in the role?

It's the ultimate role that I've ever played. It's what I am. And I love it.

Jack Charles v The Crown plays March 29 to April 8. $35 to $69. Berkeley Street Theatre, 26 Berkeley St., 416-368-3110 or canadianstage.com

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