I caught up with Hetti Perkins while I was up in the Top End of the NT for the wonderful Darwin Festival a week or so ago.

I’d not met Hetti before and I spent some time distracting her from the very important business of breakfast at The Roma Bar (two flat whites back-to-back, toast on the side, Champion Gold rollies) long enough to ask a few questions and have a yarn about her work, the animals (human and otherwise) she shares her life with and the things she likes in life.

For those who are unfamiliar with Hetti she is the Senior Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales¦and much more besides. She is the eldest daughter of the late and much loved “ in many quarters at least “ Aboriginal activist Charlie Perkins.