.....with close ties to the Kalkadoon people and land. At the age of nine, after the death of her mother, Ivy was moved to live with family in the mission on Palm Island. It was.........

Palm Island ........Ivy is my grandmother; she has been the inspiration for many of my paintings through the stories she has told me. Nan is the closest connection I have to my culture, my people and my ancestors.

Growing up on a cattle station with close ties to her Kalkadoon people and land. At the age of nine, after the death of her mother, Ivy was moved to live with family in the mission on Palm Island. It was common practice for Aboriginal women and children to be sent to missions in other areas throughout the 1900's. Nan has many stories about her life on Elrita station and her later childhood on Palm Island.

My grandmother thinks of Palm island as one of the most special times of her life. There was plenty to do. At every lunch break sat school they would go swimming, the nuns who were their school teachers would stand on the sand and watch for sharks that often swarm I the shallow waters. She has told me stories of the turtles returning to lay their eggs in the sand. And watching the baby turtles hatch and return to see. Many of the women would sit and make necklaces out of shells that they would then sell, especially to the American soldiers base there during World War II.