Kylie Dunstan was born in Broken Hill, New South Wales, in 1972, and completed secondary and tertiary (Bachelor of Visual Arts) schooling in Adelaide. She worked for a number of years in commercial art galleries before taking up a position as an Arts Officer at a community centre in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. One of Kyliea s duties was to take the local women out on bush trips to collect pandanus and a coloura for weaving and dyeing the mats and baskets sold in the Arts Centre. These trips inspired the idea for the picture book COLLECTING COLOUR, which won a Picture Book of the Yeara in the 2009 CBC Awards. Kylie currently lives in Vietnam with her partner and two children.