"Everything I do as an artist, as a First Nations person, doesn't happen in isolation," says Nyikina man and actor Mark Coles Smith.
"It is qualified by my community and my family."
It's a worldview which stands in contrast to Detective Jay Swan, the loner cop he plays in Mystery Road: Origin.
Adapted from Ivan Sen's films, Mystery Road arrived on the ABC in 2018 with Aaron Pedersen as Jay Swan.
Set against remote landscapes, it fused crime drama with stories of race, justice and the harmful legacy of colonisation on First Nations peoples.
After two acclaimed seasons, the franchise shifted into a prequel, Mystery Road: Origin, tracing Swan's early years at the turn of the millennium.
Its second season premiers Sunday 21 September at 8.15pm on ABC TV, with all episodes available to stream on ABC iview.
We meet Jay again in 2000, newly arrived in Loch Iris, a fading timber town surrounded by karri forests.
Jay and his partner Mary (Tuuli Narkle) are starting over, caring for her niece and expecting a child, while he joins the small local police force.
But his first roadside encounter — a frightened Indigenous boy on the run — hints at deeper troubles.
Soon, a missing girl, buried hospital records and old wounds in the town resurface, pulling him into conflicts which stretch far beyond his badge.
For Coles Smith, the turn of the century setting matters as much as the plot.
"You don't enter into a new century without considering what kind of nation you've been," he says.
This season forces Jay to confront the fraught tension of straddling two worlds — his duty to the police force and his ties to community.
Beneath the karri canopy, the show digs into one of Australia's darkest chapters - the Stolen Generations.
"Jay is tested in this season in a way he wasn't before – he's brought to breaking point," Coles Smith says.
But the burden Jay places on himself — trying to fix everything — only deepens his isolation.
"Individualism and self-isolation are byproducts of modernity, of Western culture — and Jay is a victim of it," he says.
"The reality is that we need each other. Our First Nations culture prescribed a sense of we, not me — working together."
It's a foundation Coles Smith carries into his own life.
"As an artist and as an Aboriginal person, I know I'm always guided — my choices are not just mine alone," he says.
That collective approach also shaped the series itself.
"We had an entire First Nations writing team on this, and the moment when I read the script, I could see the amount of care and consideration that had gone into telling a story that hadn't been told before on television," Coles Smith says.
Season two was co-directed by Wayne Blair (The Sapphires) and Jub Clerc, a Nyul Nyul and Yawuru filmmaker who once shadowed Rachel Perkins on the first Mystery Road series.
Their combined vision, alongside the all–First Nations writing team, grounds the new season in cultural authority and continuity.
For Coles Smith, embodying Jay Swan isn't just about playing a detective — it's about carrying story, culture and responsibility together.
"No story happens in isolation," he says.
"And neither do I."
