"We were looked after by Clare, who 'grew us up properly': teaching us bush tucker, hunting and respect for sacred places and important people," Leonie says. "We were real bush kids, speaking Aboriginal English and Kriol fluently. Even now, when I get really worked up about something, I go back to Aboriginal English."

"I have been influenced by two forms of spirituality. My mum's brand of Irish Catholicism, with its emphasis on the magic of the world and the spiritual way of being in it; and Clare's strict Aborginal spirituality, with its rigid rules and laws. We all grew up with great respect for the spirits of the land and sacred places."

In the early 1970s Leonie returned with her family to Darwin and high school. "It was a bit of a shock to go from Barunga to a strict Catholic School. But we lived on the outskirts of town with lots of other large Catholic, Greek and Aboriginal families, and we all hung out together and looked after each other."

Since then, Leonie has worked as a hairdresser, farm hand, nurseryman and fruit picker. She returned to school in her thirties to finish Year 12 and discovered she could write! She started writing for children after the birth of her grandson.

THE BARRUMBI KIDS and THE SPIRIT OF THE BARRUMBI are two of Leonie's YA novels. They wonderfully capture the trials of growing up within a multi-cultural community. CROC BAIT is the story of a little Aboriginal boy's fishing adventure.

Leonie now works fulltime as a journalist and writer, and has recently relocted to Queensland. Her other books include WOMEN'S TALK, a collection of conversations with territory women; UNDER THE MANGO TREE, a collection of stories with elderly indigenous people; and TROPICAL FOOD GARDENS, on growing fruit, vegies and herbs in northern Australia.