Mr Brother, Balibo and Me

Show

Morning Magazine,

Published

Friday 7th August

Paul Stewarts’s brother Tony was the sound recordist of the Balibo Five, a group of journalists murdered in East Timor during the Indonesian invasion of 1975.

Paul channeled his adolescent rage into punk, and by the 1980s was front man for Painters and Dockers, performing songs like Die Yuppie Die and Nude School.

But two years ago, he lay dying of liver failure in a hospital bed, his lifestyle of hard drinking and drugs finally catching up with him.

Paul’s miracle came in the shape of Sister Helena, a nun from East Timor, who promised Paul her sisters would pray for him.

Within days he received a new liver.

His story is the subject of the documentary My Brother, Balibo and Me, screening on ABC1 this Sunday.

Paul Stewart talked to Paul Ledingham on Morning Magazine.