Paul Michael Stewart,[1] (born 1960 or 1961)[2][3] was raised in the Melbourne inner suburb of St Kilda,[4] as the fourth of five children.
[2][6] While Stewart remained in Melbourne, the Browns moved to Nambucca Heads, New South Wales to be closer to their Gumbaynggirr clan, during Aretha's primary school years.
[5] When Stewart was 14 years old, his older brother Tony Stewart, a television journalist and sound recordist, died in October 1975 as one of the Balibo Five: a group of foreign journalists killed in Balibo by invading Indonesian forces in Portuguese Timor (later renamed East Timor).
[11] Stewart was the subject of ABC-TV programme Compass's documentary, "My Brother, Balibo and Me", originally broadcast on 9 August 2009.
[2] Michael Dwyer of The Sydney Morning Herald found it is an "inspiring guide" to both Stewart's music career and social activism while avoiding "anger and despair", which have consumed others.
He had attended a rally in St Kilda to support East Timorese resistance leader Xanana Gusmão, who had been captured by Indonesian forces in November of that year.
[3] At that rally Stewart met Gil Santos, an East Timorese emigré and Gusmão supporter, together they formed the reggae-ska group.