There’s a government file about my life. A file full of reports. The reports date from 1985 to 2003. That’s 18 years. File 105538.

No, I’m not a terrorist or a spy. From two weeks old, to the day I turned 18, I was a foster child.

I do not own the file about my life. It belongs to the state of Queensland. 

But when I turned 18 I wanted answers.   What I found rocked me to my core.

This is my story.

The Australian instrument that shaped the sound of the 1980s and forever changed how popular music was made. At the start of the 1980s the Fairlight caught the eye of synthesiser pioneers likes Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel. By the end of the 1980s it had caught the ear of millions of people around the world, even if they didn't know it.

It's the 1980s, and the first devastating decade of the AIDS pandemic. A young student nurse tests positive for the virus. and this information ends up on the front page of his local newspaper. A tale of fear and prejudice. but also of great courage, and love. 

It's 1865 in remote central west NSW. A police office is fatally shot by a man he believes is a Chinese bushranger. But all may not be as it seems. A bushranging tale with a twist

What if the most remarkable of all your ancestors was the one left out of the family tree? Historian Kacey Sinclair and two of Fanny Finch’s direct descendants reconstruct the life and legacy of a  Victorian goldfields trailblazer, a woman of colour whose story was hidden for generations.

The Kangaroo dog is unique to Australia. It's a mystery dog with a big story. Born in the early Sydney colony, this deerhound-greyhound mongrel dog was bred to hunt and kill kangaroos. The kangaroo dog was there at key moments in Australia's colonial past - from hunting dog that fed the colony, to bushrangers best mate - to battle dog in the Frontier wars, and family member. The kangaroo dog has seen a lot. What happens when we see history through a dog's eyes?

Where did Jack Karlson learn the lines he delivers in his famous viral video?  This episode unravels the story of a prison playwright and his muse which led Jack to utter those now infamous words “This is democracy manifest.”

Who is the man behind Australia's most iconic internet meme, who famously said “What is the charge? Eating a meal, a succulent Chinese meal? Gentlemen, this is democracy manifest"?

In this extra episode Sisonke Msimang tells stories of First Nations Australians, Rugby and the fight to end Apartheid.

When Aboriginal Rugby player Lloyd McDermott refused to declare himself an honorary white for the Wallabies tour of South Africa in 1963 he began a tradition of First Nations Australians using the sport to get under the skin of the country’s regime. But when Glen Ella from the famous Aboriginal Rugby Union playing family joined a Rebel Rugby 7s tour of South Africa in 1985 he broke the sports boycott and almost tore his  family apart.

Then Rugby brought the nation of South Africa together in a magic moment of reconciliation when Nelson Mandela wore the Springboks guernsey at the World Cup. 

After 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela is free and the anti-apartheid movement is full of hope. 

But as apartheid legislation is repealed and South Africa starts transitioning to democracy, not everyone is happy. Right-wing Afrikaner groups take to the streets with guns and the Zulu Inkatha Freedom Party inflicts terrible violence within the black community. There are mass killings and peace talks that keep falling apart; will the country make it across the finish line to free and fair elections? 

There's an entire system to dismantle and wounds to heal. There’s so much work to be done. What will the new South Africa look like?