Uncle Colin Davis is a KBH Survivor who was kidnapped from Cowra NSW by welfare authorities when he was around 11yrs old. He was given the number 50 as a replacement for his name upon arriving at KBH.
His maternal family comes from Cowra in the homelands of the Wiradjuri people and includes the famous Mum Shirl (Shirley Perry). While his paternal family come from Kempsey in Dunghutti country.
Art has always had a place in Uncle Colin’s life and has become a way that he copes with the trauma he went through. During his time at KBH Uncle Colin was hospitalised and while there he did a sketch of a little boy who was across from him that the child’s family loved. Later, while he was incarcerated at the Silverwater Correctional Complex, Uncle Colin wanted to learn how to do Aboriginal art so he joined the jail’s Aboriginal art class. This led to a group mural project painting some of the jail’s wall spaces and entrance way that families and visitors used.
Over the years Uncle Colin has sold artworks to various people and organisations including an Anglican school at Town Hall, a Catholic School in Dulwich Hill and he also contributed to a mural at The Block which is now housed at the Redfern Community Centre.
Uncle Colin married Aunty Rita, also a KBH descendant, who he met at an Aboriginal Medical Service meeting in1971. Together they have five children, twenty-five grandchildren and 35 great grandkids.
Born in 1947, Uncle Colin now lives with dementia and calls Batemans Bay home on the NSW south coast. He spends his time producing artworks, spreading the word of the gospel through street ministry and can also be found belting out a classic hit or three at a local karaoke bar.
