Estelle Hogan was born and raised around Tjintirrkara near the border of Western Australia and South Australia.
Estelle is married to Simon Hogan, comes from Spinifex country and describes herself as a Spinifex person and her language as Pitjantjatjara. Like other Spinifex people her life was traumatised by Maralinga atomic tests and drifted into Cundeelee Mission at some time during the 1950s or 60s and was given her approximate birthdate by mission authorities.
The Spinifex people returned to their homelands in the 1980s. In doing so they found the southern part of their country converted into nature reserve; the northern third leased to Aboriginal people living to the north and the centre Vacant Crown Land. The Spinifex People were upset and, spurred on by the Mabo judgement of 1992, mounted a Native Title claim over 55,000 km of land.
As part of the broader Native Title process, the Spinifex Arts Project was established in 1996 to record and document ownership of the Spinifex Area. Initially focused on Native Title documentation, the painting project grew rapidly and in 1998 the community produced a series of ten large paintings to be bequeathed to the people of Western Australia in a symbolic exchange of paintings for land.
Estelle Hogan was one of the founding artists who worked on the Native Title project from 1998 onwards. Her work was exhibited in the touring exhibition Pila Nguru; Art and Song from the Spinifex People of 2000.
