Anh's Brush with Fame

In this series,

I meet extraordinary Australians...

..who tell me their fascinating stories

while I paint their portrait.

I was able to be the person who I am.

He was a really beautiful little boy.

My challenge is to capture their character and put it on the canvas.

The portrait is theirs to keep, so I want them to like it.

Oh.

That's me. Ohh.

Oh, my God. Wow.

I love this!

Welcome to Anh's Brush with Fame.

Jessica Mauboy is a showbiz all-rounder

and one of Australia's brightest young talents.

Since her first outback audition on Australian Idol,

her star has been on the rise

with chart-topping albums

and lead roles on film and television.

I had a daughter.

Hey, she's Koori.

What's her name? Dunno.

Never met her.

I wanna find out how a shy little Darwin girl with a big voice

became the role model she is today.

I don't even know if I have the patience to sit doing a portrait.

I guess my personality is, you know, quite quiet in a sense

and celebrative,

so I hope he captures... captures that.

First thing you notice about Jess

are her big round eyes and her great smile.

She just radiates warmth,

so I need to harness that and put it on the canvas.

I'm hoping that choosing this warm palette

will set me off in the right direction.

Hey. Hi.

Welcome, Jess. Hi.

Mwah.

Come on in. Good to see you.

Take a seat. Thank you.

Look at your very, very cool slippers.

Do you like them?

Are they designer slippers or...?

No, they're not. They're basic.

They're fantastic. Thank you very much.

Look comfy.

The world you came from

and the world where you are now is very different, yeah?

Yeah it is.

Um, you know I grew up in Darwin,

born and bred in Darwin in the Northern Territory.

And, you know, that kind of lifestyle

there's a lot of freedom and is very spiritual

and a lot of soul.

You know, a massive Greek community, a big Indigenous community.

There's just, um, a whole heap of culture

that, you know, I was brought up with.

Your father, ah, is from West Timor,

your mother's from the Daintree region of Queensland.

How did they meet?

Um, at a deck chair cinema in Darwin. (LAUGHS)

I remember Mum telling me the story about when Dad laid eyes on Mum.

Mum was like "Ugh, that's not my type." (LAUGHS)

This little short, black chico man.

But eventually, um, you know, Dad never let it pass Mum,

he'd always kind of, you know, be around.

I guess she really enjoyed that kind of,

that feeling of, you know being loved by,

you know this short man. (LAUGHS)

And he was in love at first sight pretty much.

You're the second-youngest of five girls.

Yeah, three older sisters and one younger sister.

All girls. Poor Dad.

And you're very close in age?

Yeah, we're, like, three years apart.

What, five girls?

Five girls, three years... Three years apart?

Jeez, Mum eventually warmed to that little short dark guy.

I tell ya.

We all grew up singing in a church.

The Mauboy girls, ah,

sung the congregation into the church

and we would sing hymns.

My sister will be singing a song called I Was Born To Try.

And one day she will be a famous singer.

Did you have to share a bedroom with your sisters?

I did share with two of my sisters.

My younger sister and I shared a double bed.

It was always annoying and always kind of...

She was a mover in bed

and I always found her, like, her arm on top of me when I woke up.

It's amazing, though, and I kind of look back

and we all pretty much had hand-me-downs -

"Pass it on. You're next. You have it."

Whether it'd be socks, underwear...

And you were second last,

so by the time it got to you, those jeans were pretty thin.

Oh, they were rugged.

We did hand-me-downs. Yeah.

And I'm the eldest and I'm, like, I should be getting the new stuff.

But my brother was bigger than me. Right.

And so he'd get the big shirt

and then a year later I'd grow into it.

'Cause he's younger than me but he's bigger than me.

So I used to think, "This sucks."

I'm the eldest and I'm getting his hand-me-downs.

That's great.

Finances were often stretched in the Mauboy household.

At times, all they had to rely on was each other,

forging Jess' strong sense of family.

We saw our parents go through ups and downs

and fights and stuff like that

and that would indicate that, you know, there was not enough money.

I guess together we all kind of pitched in

and we all helped each other

so if one was down, we'd pick the other up.

My dad had this thing that,

I guess it was something that he grew up with in Indonesia,

you know, they didn't have aircon, they didn't have fans

so he always had this thing of, you know,

"Well, I didn't have this and I didn't have that

"so you don't need it."

He'd wake up when we were all fast asleep

and he would turn our fan off.

Turn it off? He'd turn it off.

To save the electricity? Yes.

"Come on, Dad!" Seriously.

And so when we would wake up,

we were, like, drenched in our own sweat and we'd be like, "Dad!"

Now, a lot of people would hear about my childhood

and they would say, "Jeez, it must have been so hard,

"'cause you were so poor."

The thing is when you're there, that's all you know.

That's all you know, that's all you have, so you just kind of deal.

That's what it is.

It's not even dealing with it, it's just what it is.

When I do think about it, we weren't poor at all,

we were so rich with togetherness, we had each other.

You know, when kids did make comments

about, you know, the shoes or what I was wearing,

like, it didn't really matter,

like, I was so above... above what... the material things.

I've read that Cathy Freeman came and talked at your school.

Yes.

And it made a big impact on you.

I was in grade 4/5.

It meant a lot to see someone who was a physical example,

a role model to me,

someone who shares the same, I guess, culture.

It was a complete moment for me, and I knew what I wanted to do.

I guess it really gave me that freedom

of whatever I want to be I can be.

She was the living example

of reaching your highest points in life,

going through those struggles

but at the end of those struggles there is a light

and there are, um, bigger and better things that do come.

Who you are and what your background is doesn't necessarily matter

but what is inside and that can be generated and can give

is more important.

You interpret it as "What can I give."

Yeah.

Rather than, "What can I achieve?" Yeah. It's what I can give. Yeah.

That's so cool.

And I think that's what, I guess, allows me to do what I do today.

I jump up on that stage and I... and I just give whatever I have,

be in that presence, be in the moment,

not thinking about anything else, but giving.

You realise there's dozens of little girls now in 20 years' time

they're gonna be, "When Jess Mauboy came to my school" as if...

How amazing is that? And I'm crying.

No, it's um...

It's such a, um, an amazing gift to give I think

when you give all of you

that is just purely you and, um...

And that's more. I think that can, ah...

That's a huge impact.

And that's what Cathy did for me, Cathy Freeman did for me, so...

After Cathy Freeman left,

did you think, "I'm gonna be a singer or a runner"?

I knew I wanted to be a singer.

I've always known, I've always had music in me.

I think I was about four years old when Mum...

Mum used to tell me I'd sit in front of the TV

and when the commercials would come on, I would sing them.

There was a song about iron storms, it was about corrugated iron.

And I would sing this song

You make corrugated iron sound so good. I'm gonna buy some.

And when the commercials would stop,

like, I would just sit there real quiet.

I dunno when you were growing up if you had, um, the music shows on TV.

Mm-hm And I...

We didn't have money to buy CDs

but I had... I'd tape it off the TV. Yeah.

And then my brother would come in

and he'd say something silly and I'd go, "Shh, I'm taping, man."

That's so hilarious because I remember doing the same thing.

My, my Opa, my Dad's dad, used to have this old cassette recorder

and I would record myself back

and it was the first time kind of experiencing