I was born in Maitland, a small NSW country town in 1964. I enjoyed an idyllic life on our small dairy farm with my parents, two brothers and grandparents. An idyllic existence for a seven-year-old till the day my grandfather rushed back from the lucerne paddock with the news that my dad had had an accident while driving the tractor and had been killed. That day my life changed forever.
Many years later I learned the family secret....I am Aboriginal. My grandfather and father had always been dark, but I thought it was because of all the hard work in the sun. I'd always had the urge to paint so one day I just let it flow. The results surprised even me, Friends began asking if I'd sell some of my work and it all went from there. I can't paint on demand though. When the feeling comes I reach for a canvas and away I go. I never know what I'm going to paint, it just comes as it comes. Painting is a very personal thing.
I am a Kamilaroi woman and a member of the Worimi Aboriginal Land Council.