Cathy Freeman is a Kuku Yalanji and Birri Gubba woman and lives in Melbourne, Victoria, with her family. Cathy won her first race in primary school – the 80m dash at St Joseph’s Primary, Mackay, Queensland. She went on to become one of Australia’s leading athletes of the modern era. Her unforgettable win at the 2000 Sydney Olympics was the highlight of a brilliant career that has included a host of Commonwealth Games medals, two world titles and an Olympic silver medal. Cathy announced her retirement from athletics in July 2003. She founded the Cathy Freeman Foundation in 2007. The Foundation supports Indigenous students to fulfil their potential and reach their goals.

Tannya Harricks's award-winning art practice draws on her experience in graphic design, illustration, life drawing and textile design. Her oil paintings, for which she has been awarded the Waverley and Hornsby Art Prizes, have been exhibited in Sydney, New Zealand and Florence. She has also been a finalist in many prominent Australian art awards including the Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize, Gallipoli Art Prize and the Gold Coast Art Prize. She has previously illustrated Dingo by Claire Saxby and Mallee Sky by Jodi Toering for the Walker Books list. Dingo was joint winner of the Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children's Literature at the NSW Premier's Literary Award (2019); won the Royal Zoological Society of NSW's Whitley Award (2018); and was shortlisted in 2019 for the CBCA New Illustrator Award, and Best Picture Book in the Educational Publishing Awards.