Turkey Tolson was born about 5 miles east of Haasts Bluff, a desert community in the Northern Territory of Australia. During his early years his family continued to roam between traditional country around Kintore and Hermannsburg mission, where they could collect rations of flour, tea and sugar, later settling in the area around Haasts Bluff. Only when Papunya was being established and there was work to be had building the settlement did the family come in from the bush and abandon their traditional lifestyle. This was in 1959, shortly after Turkey's initiation into manhood.

Turkey found employment as a labourer on construction work around the new settlement and also in the Papunya communal kitchen. He later married and moved to an ...