Well...where to start...my name for those of you who dont know, is Lisa Jackson, but depending on where you know me, my name can either be LisaJ or Leesidge. Where am I from??..Im currently living in Sydney, New South Wales but originally from Perth, Western Australia. As you can see from the map, Western Australia is pretty big, we are in fact the largest state in Australia. Even though we are pretty big, the rest of Australia, inparticularly the Eastern States, tend to forget about us.

Well enough about that, As you can see from the Aboriginal flag at the beginning of the page..I am Aboriginal Australian. I identify myself as a Noongah. This basically means that I come from the South West Region of WA. My Father comes from New South Wales. He identifies himself as a Koori and is traditionally from the Bundjalung tribe who are situated on the North Coast of NSW. My mother is from the South West Region of WA, and she is a Noongah as well.

My family still live in Perth, while I have moved to Sydney. It takes aproximatly 5 hrs to get to Perth by plane, 3 days by Bus, 4 days by Train and about 3 - 4 days by car, but that all depends on how far you drive and how many stops you make along the way. How do I know this?, well I have traveled to Sydney and to Perth by all these modes of transport, someday later I will tell you about my first solo trip across the Nullabor. If you ever come to Australia, or are from Australia, I urge you to take a trip across the Nullabor (an Aboriginal word for "Treeless Plain") because you never know how big Australia is until you have travelled from one coast to the other.

What else do you want to know..hmm..Well I love reading, my favourite authors are Patricia D. Cornwell, John Grisham, Tom Clancy, Minette Walters and others I cant think of at the moment. To me, reading is a chance to get away from it all, there is nothing better than going to the park or just sitting on the couch reading. I've given up reading in bed, not because I just dont get to sleep, but because I end up in bed with at least 5 books, and its not easy fighting for space on the bed with books.I have started reading the Harry Potter books and think they are great, The kids I work with have read them, so I thought I should read them too, and I just fell in love with them.

I am a huge Star Wars fan. My brother and I went to see the Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi when they first came out at the movies, and we have been fans ever since. I guess my favourite character is Wedge Antillies, Why? you ask, well its because even though he had a small role, it was a major one. I like reading the books, even though some of them were a bit boring, the idea of creating new characters and building on the old ones, is a very good idea.

Yep, being a Star Wars fan, the logical step forward would have to become a Star Trek fan. I used to hate Trek with a passion, but one day a friend told me to read the book "Q-In-Law" by Peter David, and also watch the first episode of the Next Generation (Encounter at Farpoint), I did, and I fell in love with Star Trek. I like ALL Star Trek, who is my favourite character from Star Trek, I would have to say Spock. Why, because he is so human. I do also read the Star Trek books, I do recommend some, but they can be a bit boring too.

I also like Due South. Its a Canadian TV Show about a Mountie, Benton Fraser, who goes to Chicago on the trail of the killer of his father, in the meantime he meets and becomes friends with a Chicago detective, Ray Vechico. I like this show because its funny, and the dog is cute. :)

Apart from reading, another one of my past-times is listening to music. also like listening to music, as I think its great to sit and read while listening to the radio. My tastes in music range from heavy metal to some classical and to some religious. My brother loves heavy metal, and its from him that I have grown to like bands such as Guns n' Roses, AC/DC, Motley Crue and the Black Crows. I have just started to like Metallica, their recent CD with them playing with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra was great. I like Australian Indi bands such as The Living End, Killing Hiedi and the Whitlams, and others, I like blues and soul music like Ray Charles, BB King, John Lee Hooker, Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone, I also like 60's music, like Diana Ross and the Supremes, James Brown and others, I also like gospel music, because I believe its uplifting..so people like Marhalia Jackson and other Black Gospel Choirs. I like some dance music, like Josh Abrams, I like classical, my favourite is Beethoven. I also like the religious Taize chants, that come from the Taize Catholic Community in France. I also like women singers such as Sarah MacLachlan and Tara MacLean.

Another one of my passions is travelling. I have been fortunate enough to travel to different countries for work, and by doing this I have met wonderful new friends. Countries I have travelled to are Switzerland - Geneva and Lausanne, Italy - Milan (was a stopover at the airport - does that count?), Singapore(another stopover), Thailand - Chiang Mai and Bangkok, New Zealand - Christchurch, Clyde, Alexandra, Queenstown, Wanaka, Auckland. Coming soon will be Canada - Calgary and Vancouver, Korea - Soeul. I hope to continue my tradition of going overseas once every year, but this year is the exception with two trips. I hope to later on do a page about these trips. In Australia, I have been fortunate enough to go from one coast to the other, Perth to Sydney by bus, train, plane, and car, I have also been to Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane, Townsville,Canberra, Uluru, and some parts of Victoria and WA. I will do a list of them all later.

My family is important to me and when I left Perth, I left my mum, brother, step-dad, dad and his partner. But I did meet with my family here in Sydney, and I have been made to feel at home here as well. I guess the biggest influence on my life has been my mum, and I do miss her alot, people say we look like each other, but I dont think we do.

This is my mum, she used to make these dolls, but she doesnt have much time to do that anymore, shes too busy working. As I said before my mum has been the biggest influence in my life, she has always encouraged me to do what I needed to do, and she also encouraged me to move to Sydney to get to know my family over here. I think this is one of the best photos of my mum, so thats why I'm putting it here. This is a recent photo, taken on Christmas Day 2001. As you can see, my mother and I dont look alike.

In my culture its a form of respect to call someone who is an elder in the community by the term "Uncle or Aunty". My brother and I call our Step-dad, Uncle. This is not only because he is an elder in the Community, but he is also one of the main parts in our family and as a form of respect we call him Uncle.

This is my dad and his partner Tracey, they live about 3 hrs away from Perth. This photo was taken about 3 years ago. Dad and Tracey love to travel, I believe that they have seen everything there is to see here in Australia. I think they should start travelling overseas. But they wont.

I almost missed the most important member of my family. This is our cat - Kit-Kat. No we didnt name him, he was given to us and we were supose to look for a home for him, only he decided to stay with us. Hes not only the boss of the house, he also is a cute ball of fluff, this is him on the washing broom. My brother was going to wash his ute, but the cat decided that he liked the broom better..