“I was born on Bentinck Island on the Northern side, Bilmee. When I was young I nursed my baby brother and sister, I learnt to hunt, fished from rocks, gathered shells, everything that our old people taught us. Camping out in humpies - we lived in humpies then - no clothes, nothing at all. Tribal way. Only grass strings around our waist. We used leaves to tie them to our bodies when Europeans came.

I was young when the Europeans came. My father had six wives. He was called ‘King Alfred’. They came three times after the war. In 1946 they came back to pick us up and lug us. I was on Sweers Island with my family when we were picked up and brought on the Lugger to Mornington Island.

When my father died my father’s brother, Old Percy Looagtha took over the family and all the wives. He had five kids. He took care of us and he had more children of his own. He shared his family. We often go and visit his grave site on Oak Tree Point on Bentinck Island and on Fathers’ Day we take flowers around to him.

Our families came together through initiation. They taught us to hunt for oysters and how to roll grass for string into dilly bags. We used to sit on the floating logs like a raft. We went straight into the dormitory on Mornington Island. They gave us ankmes and boys went separate ways to us girls in the dormitory. They also dressed us with clothes. We were homesick at first. Then when we met some girls who were friendly to us, we made good friends. Lardil girls from Mornington Island who were already in the mission.

When I was nineteen we went to work on the mainland. We had lots of boyfriends - white, black and brown. I was a housemaid on a cattle station with good looking riggers, Canobe Station. I worked on five differentstations, cooking, cleaning and looking after the kids. I came back to Mornington Island pregnant and I had twins. I also have two children from a girl from here named Grace who died. I looked after them from childhood. Amy is the last girl. They’re in their early twenties now. One has a son, Dominic. He’s a Lardil boy but he has Kaiadilt blood in him too. My mother and step-father both died here on Mornington Island. Grandmother and their families have all passed away on Mornington. Of my mother’s children there are three boys and three girls. She lost one of her boys. My mother’s sister had one boy and one girl.

I was a grandmother when we went back to Bentinck Island many years later. My daughter’s two boys were with me. We had to dance toot toot ‘cause we got our land rights. I was here for the sea claim for twenty-three years on the land council. We have homes on Bentinck Island so in the wet season we stay on Mornington Island and go home in the dry. My sister was in that plane crash here. She was my offsider on the land council. She has four girls and one boy left behind. They’re all grown up now. Good hunting on Bentinck Island. Caring and sharing on Bentinck Island. It’s better to be at home. When the boys get a dugong or turtle they share with the whole camp. We travel by 4WD to Mackenzie River and Oak Tree Point for fishing. My country. I got sick from the kids who threw fruit into the river. That made me sick. That’s a powerful place. I got a stroke from that on October 23rd and had to go to Mount Isa for a long time. I was getting home sick while I was there but they couldn’t let me go ‘til December. This all happened last year.

Rex Harold, my kid brother, he showed me how to make a painting. He sat down at my house and showed me how to draw birds and dugongs, swamps, and Phall Island or Sweers. Our aunty showed us the way, to learn from her. We have our own paintings now of our homelands and sacred places, birth places. There are a lot of boys on Bentinck Island. They ask me. I’m the boss. My grandmother delivered me from my mother on Bilmee. That has always been my homeland, my area, that’s my birthplace. It was my great great grandfathers land. As long as we’re all family we learn from each other. We started with our birthplaces.

It’s good to do painting, learn from each other our culture and story and where you come from. I paint the story places, all different places, true story places. We learned these from the old people. We learned what’s not for touching. They tell us what it means. We do this so we can pass these stories down to our grandchildren while we’re still alive. They love to hear our stories because of the olden dreamtime stories and dancing. Before I went to the mainland I was working for Rev Belcher and his wife at his house, looking after his children. I was a housemaid too. I did everything and Ankin’s children too, I look after them. The same thing I done to them, as well as gardening in the garden, growing vegetables.

When we were naughty the Mornington Island councilors would cut our hair, ‘cause we had long hair and they wanted it for POSSUM (CEREMONY OBJECT). We would tie a bag around our heads to hide our baldy heads. There are lots of things that I remember to tell in stories.

I am happy to show other people my country and culture through my paintings.

We got a fright when we first saw Sallys paintings. We are proud of her for starting off, they are lovely works.”

~ Netta Loogatha