Justine was born in Matamata, New Zealand in 1963 on the traditional land of the Ngāti Hauā. She grew up following the footsteps of her two older brothers, between urban life on the northern slopes of Auckland and their grandfather’s soldier settlement farm. on the land of the Taranaki Iwi, Opunake. At 16 Justine started an arts degree at the University of Auckland but left after 18 months, spending the next decade living between Sydney Australia, and Auckland, building a career as a largely self-taught musician/artist.

Having three children in the late 1990s brought a deep appreciation for the benefits of formal education! Not only was it helpful (if not essential) to have a degree to secure rewarding employment, but it is difficult to have a voice on environmental and policy issues without one. This change of heart was largely inspired by the adoption of two dingo pups in 2003, who at the time were listed as both a threatened species on the IUCN red list, and as vermin by most local and state governments. Dingo populations were targeted for eradication across Australia (incidentally, this is still largely the case but there is a strong movement towards their protection). At 42, Justine backtracked to university, and over the next 12 years thrived, completing three degrees in the sciences while raising three budding scholars, and managing to negotiate living space around two unruly but very endearing dingoes.

Her first degree was a BSC in Physics – Scientific Photography (RMIT), which led to four years working as a museum photographer for Museums Victoria, a position she describes as definitely the best job in the world. She completed an MSc in Animal Science at the same time and then enrolled to do her PhD in ecosystem management with the agricultural University of New England (NSW Australia). The thesis, Representing the Dingo. An Examination of Dingo–Human Encounters in Australian Cultural and Environmental Heritage, aimed to address the misrepresentation of the dingo in cultural and ecological narrative in Australia, and to recognise their status as a Cultural Keystone Species. The thesis is reprinted in full on this website. It was short listed for the Serle award for the best thesis in Australian History and awarded the Chancellors Doctoral Research Medal 2017.

Since gaining her PhD Justine has worked as a historian for the Wurundjeri in Melbourne, and lived for three years in a Moulin (mill house) in Côtes-d’Armor, France, while working on a long paper discussing the merits of dismantling Australia’s infamous Dingo Fence. Her Postdoc on MaMoGH The Making of Monoculture. A Global History at the University of Birmingham in the UK brought her back to the arts, and she returned home in July 2024 to be with family in Australia. Justine lives in Bendigo in central Victoria, where she has worked as Gatjin water manager for the Dja Dja Wurrung, and is now an independent fulltime writer/printmaker. In October 2025 she launched the travelling exhibition Museum of Monoculture, building a visual archive of images exploring our problematic agricultural and environmental history.