Melanie Hava was born in Mount Isa, Queensland. After spending time in Austria with her father’s family she returned to Cairns to be close to her mother’s country where she feels at home and at one with the spirits of the rainforest.

Her large work on paper of a rainforest panorama presents a seemingly untouched view of the Mamu Country south of Cairns. Waribarra is her grandparent’s country and holds many stories told to her by her grandmother, Doreen.

Grandma tells of places of old caves deep in the forest, some were forbidden, and others were a refuge from the wild weather, [and] of scaling down perilous cliffs with her brothers and sisters, and watching large corroborees through the trees at night time…The rainforests are so quiet now that the old ones are no longer with us...