At the age of 12, she was removed from her family and became a ward of the state, moving across several foster homes. Pat Dodson, a Yawuru elder, later wrote: "Removal had a profound impact on her. Albeit a painful and lonely time in her life, it was a period that required her to develop the constructive skills necessary to deal with her extraction and isolation." At age 15, she made the decision to follow her mother to Broome after her parents' divorce, and the local community protected her from the authorities. She completed a Business Management course in spite of not having completed formal schooling. In 1982, she moved to Derby, where she worked as a social worker and counsellor, and in 1984 married Brian Martin. Amongst other things, she worked alongside others to help return Aboriginal children who were missing in the system to their families, and help Aboriginal families deal with the consequences of the Stolen Generations. She said in 2001, "Sometimes I could help, other times my heart went out to them — for many of them their children are still lost."