"I'm the oldest of four brothers and two sisters. When I was very young I remember my family went to Brookdale station, my brother was born there. My family came back to Gununa, tour home. I do remember being young and going night hunting for turtle. We would go out with Dugong brothers, they are my father's brothers, in a little boat and with a little motor. I did all my schooling here on Mornington Island, we learned about our culture from Larry Lanley and old Spider Roughsey, they would teach us in school. We would dance and they would tell stories, our stories. I used to go walkabout with my uncle Goobala, Dick Roughsey a lot when I was young, till I was fifteen. First pay I ever got was $15.00 for working at the turtle farm, the pay was no good but working with those old men, they have all passed away, my grandfather Fred Jarrod, uncle Kelly Bumbegee, Henry Peters my grandfather, one old fella from Bentinck Island, Darwin Mudingarti. I learned from listening all those old men.

I first started dancing in the early 1970's, first Melbourne then all over Australia, We started overseas touring in 1992. We went to England, Italy and France. I danced till 1996 when I had my last tour with the dancers. I started painting at school when I was young. Around fourteen and fifteen I used to help old Lindsay cutting barks. I like this new way of getting culture through to people, making them see our stories and body paint. I paint about stories from my country, about Thuwathu the rainbow serpent and other stories of the water rat, crane, sea hawk, fish and saltwater hunting."

Darryl Williams