Black is my happy colour. I grew up in remote Cape York, Northern Australia in the early 1980s and I am still here today living in Coen with now my husband and children. My childhood was so much fun!

There was love and respect all around me; my grandparents always made me feel special. They instilled in me a sense to be proud of who we are, even when the world around us shouted the opposite.

I am forever thankful, and grateful for them making me feel like this. I owe every bit of who I have become to my grandparents — I had a loving childhood. It made me feel a responsibility to carry this forward and show my people in a positive light; how resilient and proud we are as First Nations people and the love we have for our Country.

I use photography to give my people a voice from the perspective of a black person speaking with black people. Being from the Community of Coen and sharing life’s experiences with Cape York people, there is an intrinsic trust and oneness that exists in these photographs. While the camera is always present, it is also invisible — we just talk and capture the essence of the moment.

‘Adolescent Wonderland’ rejects stereotypes in mainstream culture that link ‘negativity’ and ‘badness” to the colour of our skin. When some people see our young black men and women they sense fear and then uncertainty. My people are a life full of humanity, strength and pride — and this has always inspired me.

This series of photographs explores the inherent energy of young people expressing their individuality, inner beauty, bravery, and confidence. There is so much to learn from the process of accepting self, and this constant and persistent search by our young people of ‘how to be’ in this world.

I wanted to convey this by letting them lead their own narratives and confront misconceptions about how they are represented in this world.

My art reflects my environment, my community and my people. I use photography to create a voice for my people. I realised that most photographs out there were not shooting content that came from me and my people, as a First Nations and a Community person’s perspective from inside Community. So I felt a responsibility to tell our stories about who we are as people, as black people, as First Nations people. We are all valuable.

When you drive into Coen, a small community of 364 people, located in the heart of Cape York Peninsula, the first thing you see are the mountains, engulfed in thick bushland that leads into fresh streams of running river water. For my people, the Kaantju people, whose ancestral lands surround this area, this is our home. This is the place where my mother, her mother and her mother before her lived. Generations of kin have lived on this Country – their memories forever etched into the fabric of the surrounding landscapes.