A little over six months ago Ezra, a young Congolese artist, landed in Australia with his large family straight from one of the largest refugee camps in Malawi to a quiet, leafy street where he appreciated the sounds of chirping birds.
"Cockatoos are the most unique creatures I've ever seen in my life and that's why I decided to paint them," he told AAP.
"There is much security here not the same as overseas, we were insecure."
The 18-year-old was referring to Dzaleka, the sprawling United Nations-administered camp housing over 50,000 people, mostly comprised of Democratic Republic of Congolese like himself where millions have fled violence into neighbouring countries in recent years.
"Once you move outside of the camp, you would get beaten and robbed. You have no rights once you step outside of the camp," Ezra noted.
The renewed fighting in February between Rwanda-backed Tutsi rebels and the army in the resource-rich nation has displaced over seven million internally.
"Sometimes I look at it (violence in DR Congo) on social media and feel depressed because we have friends and relatives back in Congo so I usually feel sad about it."
Packed in classrooms of 250 students in the Malawi refugee camp where his learning was impeded, Ezra was quickly drawn to stencil drawing and painting aged 9.
"I didn't get the chance to study arts formally because I was assisting my family financially but I started learning from my friends and would pick up information from them then use my own perspective and my own ideas."
He and one of his brothers would sell chickens at the markets to make ends meet because they would go hungry for days without food due to looters.
"Life was so difficult. I couldn't even afford to have my own mobile phone so I couldn't even capture what my paintings are about," he said.
Since joining a creative arts mentorship program with Settlement Services International, a large Australian agency tasked with resettling refugees, he has been able to track his progress with photos of his canvases on his phone.
The initiative which began last year is spearheaded by Ghasan Saaid, a prolific Sudanese-Australian visual artist who is a manager with the Humanitarian Settlement Program which helps new arrivals navigate their way in Australia from education to housing to finding a job.
"Art is powerful because there's emotions and it's a very good tool for healing where artists become leaders in their communities," Mr Saaid explained.
"So when we take care of those talents we are increasing the sense of belonging and enriching the cultural scene in Australia too."
The creative arts project run out of Sydney provides refugees with artistic opportunities whether it is in music, theatre or visual arts with a professional industry setting.
They pair them with experts and masterclasses in collaboration with cultural bodies such as the Art Gallery of NSW and link them with local art centres such as Casula Powerhouse and Blacktown Arts Centre in culturally diverse western Sydney with the view to earning a living off their work.
"The art scene in Australia is very difficult to navigate especially with all the settlement barriers so ... guidance is the best thing to nurture them," Mr Saaid said.
This was Ezra's experience, having sold one of his paintings displayed at an exhibition at NSW Police headquarters recently.
He is hard at work painting a couple of new canvases for an upcoming exhibition next month marking International Human Rights Day.
