Coolabah, No.14, 2014, ISSN 1988-5946, Observatori: Centre d’Estudis Australians / 

Australian Studies Centre, Universitat de Barcelona 

2 
 

 

 

Dedicated to: 

 

Pam’s children: Cass, Dance, Keera and Tamlin. 

And grandchildren: Vashti, Amalia, Sienna, Ziggy, Tempest, Samanya, Hero, 

Cassius and Mia 

 

 

 

 

Acknowledgements 

 

 

This special edition of Coolabah could not have come together without the assistance of the 

following people. Many thanks to Keera Dahl-Helm for her patience and careful attention to 

the details of her mother’s life and for helping us get the facts right about the mother she loves 

so much. Also to James (Butch) Singleton Hooper, Pam’s partner, for his ongoing support and 

for providing essential background stories, images and writings. Many thanks to the 

contributors: Professor Diana Wood Conroy for her support and assistance in the early stages 

of the project as well as her writing; Trevor Avery for bringing to light the importance of 

Pam’s work in a global sense; Pauline Mitchell for bringing us together as family and for her 

continuing support of Pam and her work; C.Moore Hardy for articulating the importance of a 

woman’s life in Pam’s work and adding a strong feminist perspective plus continuing support 

to honouring Pam; Cate McCarthy, for her ongoing friendship and support in getting this 

special edition for Pam together plus the many invaluable talks we have had by phone on 

email and for being a perfect host at Fat Wombat Farm as well as providing much of the 

background information and images from Pam’s archives. To Doctor Sue Ballyn of the 

Australian Studies Centre at the University of Barcelona, for suggesting we could publish a 

special edition for Pam in the first place and to Doctor Maarten Renes for special insights and 

assistance as executive editor on the project. To fellow artists, colleagues and friends of Pam, 

Josie Kim and Amalina Wallace for providing much needed missing pieces. To artist and 

educator Elizabeth Day for her invaluable perspectives on the importance of art in prisons. To 

the School of Arts and Social Sciences Southern Cross University for their ongoing support of 

my eclectic research. 

 

Thank you to the numerous others I have spoken to who have helped honour the life and times 

of this remarkable woman.  

 

 
 

Janie Conway-Herron 

 

Guest editor of this issue