Were you poor or rich?
I was born an ordinary person into a large family, I had 8 sisters and 5 brothers, and I was the eldest child in the family. However, I think that people measure richness by different things. Some people are rich because they have a lot of money and some people are rich because they have a lot of friends.

Did you play a lot of sport?
I played a lot of sport; however, we weren't welcome in a lot of places because of the people that we were. We were an Aboriginal group and the people who played sport were very Australian/ English and the attitude back in the 1950s was that if you were coloured or spoke with an accent or had anything different about them they weren't welcome. So if you had brilliant red hair and spoke with a Scottish accent you were considered to be a foreigner and you weren't really welcome. Really, that was a strange attitude in those days but it did exist. Because I was black I didn't even get a chance.

So were you called names Eddie?
Oh yes, everyday, terrible names. My name is Kneebone, so the first name they would call me was 'Dog's Bone', 'Shin Bone', 'Hey, the Kneebone is connected to the Hip bone, Yeah-'.

Who taught you to paint and how long does it take to do your painting?
I taught myself to paint because I watched many, many other people painting. The quickest painting I have done took me thirty minutes. The longest painting that I have completed was one hundred and thirty hours and I just completed that before I went over seas this year. It was one and a half metres wide by by one and three quarter metres high with very small dots and very brilliant colours, it tells of the spirit that created the world. I use as many colours in my paintings as I can get my hands on.

What is your life like now?
I get to meet famous people, important people, scientists and inventors, I get people asking me if I will go over seas to meet others like themselves, they pay for my fares, meals and accommodation just to hear me talk to them. I get interesting people ringing me or writing me letters. I get to see some very nice places. I have a good job and plenty of money. I meet lovely people and speak to really nice kids. I have a really good life, I've got a really good boss, I like my job as a lecturer and as Artist in Residence at Wodonga Tafe and the people I work with and especially the people I meet.

What was your life like before you became educated?
I have working life of forty years. In that time I think that I have had 26 or 27 different kinds of jobs. When you start to work that is not the end of your school or education. It is just a new type of learning, how to deal with people, how to experience things, create things, improve things it is the type of schooling that you don't get at school. I had a lot of experience and then the opportunity to become a park ranger came along and as part of that job they sent me back to college, twenty six years out of school and I went back to school. It wasn't as hard as I thought.

Did you get teased when you went back to school?
Oh no, I had life experiences that the younger students did not have, I had knowledge that they had not known about. I knew things because I had lived them. I was history; I lived in a time of pounds, shillings and pence. I lived before they had ball point pens, I lived before CDs, transistor radios and computers were part of the cartoons. They were great big rooms full of machines. My education was so much more than that of the younger students and I could sit there and tell them about another time. I got very good marks.

Is there any one particular person that has inspired you to become the person that you are now?
There have been two or three major people. One man who inspired me to never give up was Dr. Martin Luther King Junior. He was hated because he was black but he believed in the goodness in all people and he urged people not to be angry but to use their energy to improve things for themselves and to inspire others. When I was a child he taught me to dream. If you can dream good things then say, "Why not"? "Why not have these good things"! He taught me to dream big dreams and to be a part of it. To be able to do that is very important. Another man who inspired me was a man at Lemnos not far from here. When I was eighteen years old I went to work for Jack Stevens and he taught me that I was not useless, that I was not something to be thrown away, that I was important and that I was somebody. This man taught me to believe in me. It took me a long time but he was one who inspired me. The third person to inspire me was my foster mum and she adopted me when things in my life were the worst, when I was the meanest and the worst person you would want to meet. She believed in me and she taught me to like me, it was very hard but she taught me to like me and she let me live in her house with her family and I became her son. I seem to have met the important people at the right time to make me the man that I am. And from there I got married and had children and I wanted things for my kids. I improved my life so that my kids could have better things.

How did you get in touch with your Aboriginal heritage? Was it always a part of your life or did you have to seek it out?
I had a grandmother who had friendships with tribal people, she didn't live a tribal life but she spoke of the tribal way of life very quietly. She taught us about aboriginal life telling the stories and all sorts of things that had happened in history. She would only tell us these things when we were by ourselves, if anybody else was there she was silent. Only when the door was closed and us children were there would she talk about the old ways and times. When I went into my teens and moved away to work I didn't see her very often and I was growing up and doing the things that young people do and I didn't really want to have anything to do with aboriginal culture. When I got into my twenties it was even worse and it wasn't until I started to meet other people later in life that I started to think our culture was important. Those people taught me to be proud of whom I was. My grandmother gave me her stories but pride she couldn't give me because her stories were of great sadness. I learnt from other people who I was, to be proud of who I was, to understand who I was and the importance of being me. Not to copy someone else but to be Eddie Kneebone and it took me a long time to grow up. That's a journey in life.

Do you have a particular tribe that you belong to?
My ancestors are Bangerang, it is a big tribe of people coming from up behind Yeah, up the Goulburn river through Murchison and Shepparton, right up as far as the Barmah Forest. All those people are Bangarang people and Bangerang means 'tall trees'. We are also known as 'koala people'. I belong to a smaller tribe of people from an extended family, A group of people that used to live at Ullupna Island and this group of people is known as the Thooloolagong people. When two or three groups of people get together they are considered a clan and two or three clans together are then called a tribe. We are also known as 'kookaburra people'. You will notice that sometimes I sign my name as Eddie Kookaburra Kneebone. This history is very important because it is part of my identity, and its important that it is kept our children that are now becoming multi- national. I have three children, Scott who is 25, Belinda who is 23 and Leanda who is 20. They will be interested. They may want to know about being Australian and their children may want to know about their aboriginal grandfather, the stories and legends, all sorts of things that are their inheritance to give to their children. This heritage and history will help to bring people together so that they may live together in one nation.

What do you consider to be your most important achievement?
The most worthwhile thing that I have done for myself was to learn to like myself. By liking myself I learned to like other people and by doing this I achieved lots of things. The first thing to do in life was to achieve a good standard of education; the second was to use that to not only help myself but to help my family and friends. My life has improved because I have achieved a lot of things. I have achieved greatness in art; it hangs all over the world, Parliament House, at Government House in Melbourne, in Tokyo, Canada, England and Ireland. Some of t is considered to be quite famous because it tells of legends and it relates to people. I have achieved a standard in my life that has become a role model for others. Colleges and universities ring and want me to work with them. Politicians seek me out and are I have worked with many. I have met with foreign ambassadors from other countries. They are interested in my life. Last year I was made citizen of the year in Wodonga on Australia Day. I work for charity organizations, I give public talks and a lot of these efforts go towards Reconciliation, to help bring people together. I am also an elder in my aboriginal community and this is very important to me. I receive many awards and certificates; it is almost just too much.

What is your theory in life, why did it happen so well for you?
As we go through life we have many roads that take us up hill. At any time you can stop going up and walk off onto level ground, but, when you get to the top of the hill the scenery opens up for you and in that scenery are other choices, new challenges. Sometimes your choice leads down hill again, but you keep slugging away until you achieve. My life started going up hill when I stopped being angry about being black and started to like myself and noticing the other black people who had done good things. I decided to become good at the things that I did, I started by becoming the best tractor driver I could be because that was I liked to do, I was good at it and I began to like myself. Good things started to happen for me. Doors started to open.