"My parents met here at the mission, in the mission days when they came out from the bush. The missionaries forced them to marry. I'm the youngest of three brothers and four sisters. I was born in Cloncurry in the north western Queensland. I grew up playing with other young kids hunting and fishing, I was free when I was a child. I used to like riding horses as a schoolboy and going out bush ringing. I went to school, that was sometimes good, sometimes bad. I used to run away, stay away for a couple of weeks, never really used to get on with the teachers.

After school I went away with Johnny Williams to Sydney to ballet school, it was good, hard dances, but I learned a lot about dancing. I also learnt how the outside world lives, city life. In 1977 I came back to Mornington Island and started dancing for Woomera Aboriginal Corporation, Mornington Island Dancers. 1990 was the last tour I did with the dancers, I toured all over Australia dancing for schools and concerts, I once danced for the Royal Easter Show in Sydney, that was with five other men from Mornington Island.

When I was a schoolboy I used to paint, then I forgot about it for a while. We used to do culture at school that's how I learned to paint. After dancing I went back to painting. Its good painting when you feel like doing something, it makes your mind work. I love doing traditional paintings and story time paintings as well. I like having good company at the art centre with the other painters. I like to see what other painters are doing, to see other styles, cause we all have our own ways."

Lance Gavenor