Cynthia Hardie was born and raised in Mooroopna and over the years has filled her home with her beautiful creations. Reluctant to part with anything, she says her home is almost full to the rafters Her paintings adorn canvas, rocks, emu eggs, timber, papier-mache bowls, clap sti cks boomerangs, anything she can get her hands on and often more than one thing at a time. Her love of art and craft began as a child and has continued throughout her life. Mostly self- taught, she enjoys teaching her granddaughters how to paint, sharing her art supplies and painting small canvases and boomerangs. In 2016 she was joint winner with Jack Anselmi of the Indigenous Ceramic Art Award for the installation piece, Midden. Her themes include stories and connection to place. Wildlife, totems including long-neck turtles, emu, kangaroo. She works in a wide variety of media including acrylics.wood, feathers, weaving and ceramics. This coolamon is made from ceramic and gold leaf. Cynthia says "coolamons carried food and babies and are still an important symbol of our culture. My coolamon has been mended with gold leaf to indicate the ongoing mending of our Aboriginal culture and the precious nature of our collective past".