Insight: Nov 3

This week, Insight meets people who have cheated, gambled and killed, and asks whether it’s possible to make up for the mistakes they’ve made.

At some point in our lives, most of us have all struggled with the wrongs that we’ve inflicted on others.

Some mistakes can be life changing. But how can we move beyond them?

The process of atonement can be a two-way-street with victims and offenders both profiting from the experience.

Join host Jenny Brockie as we look at the different ways people have taken responsibility for their wrongdoings.

Guests include:

Shaka Senghor
Did 19 years in jail for murder and now helps at risk youth: “I’ve taken responsibility for taking your life by dedicating my life to atoning.”

Carroll Murphy
Carroll was married when she had a one-night stand. She spent the next several years of her marriage trying to be the perfect wife: “Guilt has a way of eating at you. It eats at your very core, you know, and you can’t run away from the mirror.”

Brian Cleaver
A Vietnam war veteran who fought in the major battle of Coral-Balmoral in 1968. Since 2002, he has returned to the country to try and search for the missing bodies he helped bury and return them to their families: “I realised I was possessed and could not draw myself out of it.”

Julia Karpathakis
Julia was a pokies addict for over 10 years and feels she neglected her children during that time. She has been trying to make amends ever since: “For me atonement wasn’t a conscious thing, it was to fix up my life.”

Dan Poskitt
Dan participated in a restorative justice program in which he met his sister’s murderer: “There was a lot of anger inside me that I didn’t know I had. Once it [the anger] came out, I felt different.”

Tuesday at 8.30pm on SBS.