Suzette Coates first met George Davis at the Herberton Court House and later at her office where she incorporated a Commonwealth Indigenous Corporation called “Dulabed”. Dulabed being a mythical ancestor who  threw a boomerang which travelled across the estate to Yarrabah “Budabadoo” when the sea was further out. His estate encompassed, a river valley leading from the side of the Atherton Tablelands down Toohey’s creek to the Big River (Mulgrave River). Davis’s personal history is an extraordinary story. Davis was born on 18 December 1922, in the Atherton Tablelands to an Aboriginal mother and Welsh father, a miner from Fanning Town (North Queensland) He spent his first 12 years under the guidance of his grandfather Gudtjoi (Jimmy Longdon) who raised him traditionally. Gudtjoi, was born before First Contact and was never removed from Country. Davis regularly ran away from police who tried to remove him to Palm Island. Luckily this never occurred. For traditional owners, Colonial History commences in the 1880s, with forced removal, muster, and dispossession.   Davis came out of the bush when he was 16 speaking his language and other neighbouring   languages and some English. After attending the local school, Davis worked for forty years cutting timber in the North Queensland rainforests. George Davis passed away just before his 80th birthday on 21 September 2002. Coates’s work with Davis and his family comprise the following:

1. the Native Title claim which involved Petronella Vaarzon‐Morel and Dr Peter Sutton

2. Travelling to the South Australian Museum in the 1990s to look at the North Queensland artefact collections which was organised by Dr Christoph Anderson and Kate Alport.

Petronella Vaarzon‐Morel is working on a biography of George Davis. Before Davis and his brother Eddie died, Coates was instructed to preserve all information and lodge it with an institution. Davis was particularly fond of the South Australian Museum. When he and  Coates returned from the 1990s visit to the  Museum, Davis commenced within a week to make his own country’s shield and many others. After Davis showed Coates the first shield he made, he said “You can revive culture”. Coates was delegated the Keeper of the Records, a complex collection, dating back to the 1890s.