I was born in Darwin in 1980 in the old hospital at Myilly Point…no hospital in Borroloola so mum (Nancy McDinny) was flown up to Darwin to give birth. Dad (Stewart Hoosan) arrived and I was born just as he got out of the bus! It was their first time to Darwin.  

I grew up on Wandangula outstation until I was about 16 then Sandridge outstation near Borroloola. I’m Garrwa and Yanyuwa.  

When I was younger I was always out in the bush…there was no need to go into town. My favourite thing every day was hunting for turtle…we don’t fish for it, we dig. I would walk down to the lagoon to get turtle in a wheelbarrow. I used to hunt a lot with all those old ladies…they all gone now…I used to take them out on the tractor. Dad would give me the keys and I’d take them all out to hunt for turtle…ten or twelve of them! Sometimes it would take three trips, and thy were hanging off the side of that tractor! One night we had to camp out there because we got a flat tyre. Dad was worried and he was cranky when he came to find us the next day. He brought cooked chicken but we had already caught all the turtles and had a big feed!  

My Dad and Mum was always mustering and we lived really in tin sheds growing up but I love the bush and hunting and now painting.  

When we was kids we would just dance every night. Mum was the best teacher of all the dance and the songs and the culture. Now I’m the leader of the dance – mum’s dance, our dance. Ngabaya Dance. I sing all the songs too. I take the lead, today now I teach all the young kids for dancing.  

At Wandangula (Police Lagoon) we went to a bush school in the Bough Shade. Mum was the assistant teacher. We used to go to a lot of mustering camps with Mum and Dad and all the family. School was in the bush and the mustering camps. But sometimes we would steal some milk and sugar and run off into the bush and make our own feed! We had lots of fun…we would jump on a horse at stock camp…later there was no school in stock camps, only at Wandangula. I went to boarding school in Darwin until Year 10.  

I saw my grandfather paint, and my Mum and Dad. I didn’t want to paint first. I was an assistant teacher at Wandangula after I finished school. I was a Board Member at Mabunji and I worked at the Malandirri Store. Now I like painting…I can sit and relax and think about the country and the stories and the memories.  

I feel good painting, my stories are filling my head now. I have to paint them.