"I'm the third eldest of my four brothers and three sisters in my family. I grew up going fishing and spearing with my other young mates and friends, we used to go bush and hunting for those wild berries and little goannas. I loved my schooling, I used to do school work on the front of my page and on the back of my book was where I did my drawings of animals and comic book characters. I learnt my culture from my old people, I learnt a bit from my father and the rest from my uncle.

I left school when I was fifteen, went to the mainland working on cattle stations, around 1955. I was a yardman, milking cows, feeding chooks looking after the animals. I used to make cream and butter from any extra cows milk. In 1959 I returned to Mornington Island, I saw my family then went back again to the mainland. I was moving backwards and forwards all the time. I came back finally and got married in 1967, I've got three boys and one girl, and she gave me my three grandchildren. I saw my father making paintings, painted boomerangs and shields he made. In 1968 I started painting alongside Goobala, Spider, and dear old Percy Trezise, he came here and then that's when we started doing bark paintings. I've kept painting from that time till now.

I like painting with three ways, landscapes, body painting, and story painting on bark. I still like to make spears, fighting sticks, boomerangs and lovedolls. I used to work on my own and had no one to talk with in the day, now there's more artists starting up in the art centre. It makes me happy to see more artists painting culture painting, our way, working with me."

Arnold Watt