2 of US - Gordon Syron & Elaine Pelot Syron

Elaine: Mum Shirl [the late Sydney Aboriginal activist] introduced me to Gordon at Eora Aboriginal College in Redfern soon after he'd finished a 10-year sentence for killing a man in a traditional Aboriginal "payback" over a family land dispute.

I fell in love with his paintings years before I fell in love with him. His style was so original, with such a finesse. He'd studied the masters in prison, so he'd had the best teachers. I became his agent – producing posters and trying to get his work shown – but the private galleries thought he was too political, even though he'd had an exhibition in NSW Parliament House. I was so angry no one else would show him that I ended up opening a gallery in Darlinghurst devoted to his work.

We were just good friends for years before anything happened. I didn't tell Gordon how unhappy I was in my marriage. I was so down, almost suicidal.

Gordon and I did a road trip to Wilcannia [in western NSW] in 1996 with Carole Johnson, the former head of Bangarra Dance Company. Carole had a writing deadline and was going to be up all night. Gordon and I had dinner together and drank some white rum. I told him I'd become sexually attracted to him. Well, he wouldn't even touch me, but the next day I told him about my failed marriage. He must have thought about it because that night he was very affectionate. But we still didn't make love for a long time; we wanted to make sure it wasn't the rum.

We'd been best friends for so long, Gordon knew he could trust me. We fell in love in Wilcannia and have never looked back.

We began living together in 1998. I had a few doubts. Gordon's terrible with road rage and politics. He argues with people over history – like, for example, whether Captain Cook was a good guy or not. He's so politically motivated, he can't think of anything else. He's done more than 150 paintings of "Invasion Day':

He didn't have much of an education but I think he's a genius. I'm so proud of him; he's always trying to increase his vocabulary, always wanting to learn. He twice won the NSW Golden Gloves award for boxing and represented Australia against New Zealand; he was the first art teacher at Eora College and is president of the Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Watch Committee. He was exhibited at the Athens and Beijing Olympics and has just won the University of NSW College of Fine Arts Professional Development Award for his commitment

to documenting Aboriginal history. He hangs on to this history the same way he holds the paintbrush – with a boxer's grip.

Gordon wants to be an Aboriginal entrepreneur and registered art valuer, travelling the country, buying art from his people, then selling it to collectors for its true value and giving all the money back to the artist. If that makes him feel good, then more power to him.

To be happy with the person you snuggle up to, to feel safe and know he's never, ever going to be with another woman because he loves you so much ... Meeting Gordon was as if a door opened somehow to heaven.

Gordon: I thought Elaine was a very nice lady but she was married to this Macquarie Street specialist. She became my best friend. She did things for me and never asked anything in return. She kept a photographic record of my work; not many Aborigines get the chance to have that.

I used to introduce her at exhibitions as "my friend, the lady from Woollahra". Sometimes I'd go with her to Kings Cross when she was photographing so she'd be safe. I remember debating with a hooker one day: "God almighty," I said, "I don't want to go to bed with ya. She'd like to photograph you; how much do you want?"

Elaine was a pretty girl. One day [Aboriginal activist] Burnum Burnum took a photo of us and Elaine said, "Put your arm around me, Gordon." I thought, "I've been wanting to put my arm round you for a while!"

On that trip to Wilcannia in '96, Elaine told me how she felt about me, but I was thinking, "I'm only a poor ol' blackfella, an ex-criminal to boot, what would you want with me?" But Elaine helped me change my mind.

There was an old lady Elaine wanted to photograph in Wilcannia, but whitefellas had killed her son. She didn't want to have much to do with us but, while standing there, an emu feather came out of the wind and stuck on Elaine's shirt. The old lady and I looked at each other, she said, "Feather Foot", and completely changed. Feather Foot in my culture means "someone to be trusted".

Elaine's the nicest person I know. shell give anything to anybody, depending on what they need and what she's got to help them. She's a good mother to her children, a very good cook and a very talented photographer. She's one of the best spellers I know! She's a teacher and I've always admired education.

We've carted around this art collection in trucks and vans for more than 10 years. It's not only traditional art, there's lots of contemporary urban stuff as well; my work and 450 other artists. I travelled and collected for years. We rarely go out together because someone has to be home to guard the art. It's been really tough but Elaine's been with me all the way. If it hadn't been for her, I would have said bugger it and sold the collection long ago.

When we were living in Byron Bay I took a trip to the NSW South Coast. While I was there a tiger snake trapped her in the art shed at Byron and she rang me on the mobile. I said to Elaine, "Now keep your eye on it, don't let it get near all those boxes of art." She said, "It's brown with lines around it?' I said, "Sounds like a tiger ... very venomous .. careful!" I rang Rebecca, a woman who lived nearby, and told her to take a shovel to Elaine. While Rebecca stood guard, Elaine armed herself with the shovel. It took two hours, but she killed the snake in the end.

I threw my life away in '72. I was dragged between two cultures. Elaine was the one who taught me to trust again and to believe in myself. Our bush wedding took place in 2005 by that river in Wilcannia where we first fell in love. Our vows went: "Our love is based on Dreamtime, which is 250,000 years or more of Aboriginal culture. Even though we live in a materialistic world, we have a nurturing relationship on a foundation of trust and loyalty, with a passion for each other's careers which intertwines art and photography. We are soul mates forever. I promise to love you till death do us part". GW

Source: 2 of us - Good Weekend January 24, 2009