Nelly Patterson was born out in the bush in 1938. She grew up as a traditional Anangu girl near Pipalyatjara in the Anangu Pitjatjantjara/Yankunytjatjara Lands, with no whitefellas or roads. The first white man she saw were the camel workers passing through. When Nelly was a little older, the missionaries came. She remembers coming into Ernabella and seeing people wearing clothes, and she was scared. Nelly moved to Areonga, near Hermannsburg in the Northern Territory, and lived there for a long time, nearly eighteen years. She did pottery there. She then lived in Jay Creek, where her grandfather is from. She travelled all over this country and had come back and forth to Adelaide to bring up her grandchildren. She now lives in Adelaide permanently. As a senior traditional woman, Nelly is custodian of the stories and lore which has sustained her people throughout generations.
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