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Outspoken Sandy did not appear on the reunion show after an early exit. Source: SBS

Opinionated Sandy skipped the Insight reunion last night, after leaving the social experiment program before the halfway mark.

And fellow guinea-pig Marcus told the program that he didn’t think he had learned anything about Aboriginal life, although he was happy to be a “vessel” for others.

Marcus, right, said he didn’t think he had learned anything from the show. Source: SBS

Sandy, who became notorious for her outspoken comments on Aboriginal life, said her views were not changed by the program.

Her absence from last night’s recap show was notable, suggesting the experiment had done nothing to alter her views on indigenous people.

During the show, she made comments including “Give them houses and they burn them down. You think that’s racist, well I don’t f***ing care.”

She could not understand life in the small rural community the group visited, saying: “You don’t just stay in a place like this forever. It’s beautiful. You come to places like this for holidays. It’s just bush.”

Sandy with Bo-Dene, whose life was turned upside down by the program. Source: SBS

Aboriginal leader Marcus Lacey, who shared his life with the six guinea pigs on the show, told Insight host Stan Grant that he found Sandy’s views “very hurtful”.

“We came from here, so, our dream and goal is to be here. The land owns us,” he added.

Marcus said he thought the series had “achieved its purpose, not mine”. But he added: “I guess my aim was to be a vessel more than anything. Just to be there so people can live through me on this show, or learn through me on this show, which is hopefully what happened.”

Another of the show’s stars, Alice, said her sympathetic views towards Aboriginals remained mainly unchanged, although she “had her eyes opened to the complexity and to the magnitude of all the problems”.

But Bo-Dene, Trent and Jasmine all underwent a dramatic transformation.

Jasmine also had a revelation, saying she thought her upbringing had drilled certain views into her. Source: SBS

Bo-Dene became one of the show’s stars after her beliefs that Aboriginals get a free ride from welfare were completely broken down.

She admitted: “Watching the series back, the first couple of episodes, I was like, ‘It’s such bad things to have said’. I found it hard to watch it, I was so ashamed of the things I said.”

And her world as she knew it altered even further when she returned from filming the show to find her husband had left her.

“My outlook on life had changed, and it seemed too that my life had changed without me even having a say in it,” she wrote on SBS News.

“The trip showed me that I do have the strength to stand on my own two feet. If I was able to connect with so many inspirational people, surely I could handle this.”

Police officer Trent Giles says he hopes he can instil new attitudes in his workplace. Source: SBS

Trent is trying to apply what he has learnt back at work as a policeman. “I said some pretty terrible things to start, and watching back, you know, episode one, it’s confronting,” he said.

But he admitted there was a long way to go with other Australians who shared his former negative views.

“Just like the six of us, when we started, we had certain opinions and prejudices and unfortunately they didn’t have the opportunity that I had.”

Jasmine took a little longer than Trent and Bo-Dene to be persuaded.

She said she felt that her views had been “drilled in her” when she was growing up in Perth.

“I guess I wasn’t open as much as the other guys and it took me a long time, but I got there,” she said.

Host Ray Martin has said he was inspired to do the show after witnessing shockingly racist scenes in his childhood, including Aboriginal children being hosed down at an NSW pool.

Alice, left, already had positive views towards the Aboriginal community. Source: Supplied

Stan Grant said he had been somewhat critical of First Contact, because: “I wonder if a format like this can wrestle with the complexity of the issue.”

Rachel Perkins, from production company Blackfella films, said: “Overwhelmingly people have been really positive about it, and particularly indigenous people because I think, you know, we know that there are these things said about us.”

She said it was a chance for indigenous people to address “the myths about Aboriginal Australia”.

One Twitter user said the experiment had worked because it had “got people talking”.

The three-part documentary series has stimulated fierce debate across the nation and had a cumulative reach of 1,847,000 Australian viewers.

Host Ray Martin wanted to be part of First Contact having witnessed serious racism in his youth. Source: SBS

Catch-up numbers on SBS’s On Demand service for the series are currently at 198,143.

SBS Director of Television, Tony Iffland said: “Over the past three days, First Contact has truly shone a light on the divide between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Australia. SBS and the program’s producers Blackfella Films are beyond delighted that so many Australians have come together to engage in debate and discussion about an issue that effects all of us.”

It was, at the very least, a life-changing journey for Trent, Jasmine and Bo-Dene.

“We only see a very small snippet of the connections, the personal connections, that we made with these people,” said Trent. “I’m a leader in this area … I can go into my workplace and start encouraging change — which is exactly what I want to do.”

All episodes of First Contact are available now on SBS On Demand and you can watch all three epsiodes on SBS 2 Saturday at 8.30pm. Interactive content for schools is available here.