[6] Growing up, Deacon and her family lived in various Melbourne inner suburbs including commission housing, which influenced her world views greatly.

[10] However, instead of pursuing photography, Deacon decided to attend university and study politics, a field that her mother had been very active within, being involved with the United Council of Aboriginal Women.

[7][12] Using what she had learnt about politics through Perkins, the "Angels", and her upbringing, Deacon started taking photographs of her culture using her trademark "black dollies" and other kitsch items as props to expose racism in Australia.

I've started taking the kind of pictures I do because I can't paint..and then I discovered it was a good way of expressing some feelings that lurk inside".

[14] Deacon worked across a spectrum of different mediums including photography, video, installation and performance, but the one she was most noted for was her use of dolls to convey her message about the racism that exists within Australia.

[7] Deacon's photography polarised popular Anglo culture against Indigenous existence, creating satirical images, using Aboriginal imagery, found items, family members, and friends in very strange scenarios.

[18] It is also suggested that Deacon was using a term possibly appropriated from American hip hop or rap, the intention behind it was that it "reclaim[ed] historical, representational, symbolical, stereotypical and romanticised notions of Black or Blackness", and expressed taking back power and control within a society that does not give its Indigenous peoples much opportunity for self-determination as individuals and communities.

(2003) shows the large difference between how Indigenous people are perceived by the white Australian population and the reality of her family and friends' lives.

[2] Deacon's first show, "Pitcha Mi Koori", was a part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival, and in 1991, her work was included in Aboriginal Women's Exhibition, at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

[21] In 1998, Deacon explored her mother's life by photographing her family in the Torres Strait Islands after her death two years earlier, documenting it in a show titled "Postcards from Mummy".

[24][25][26] Walk & don't look blak was Deacon's first large retrospective held at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, in 2004, encompassing the past 14 years of her work and practice.

[30] Deacon was awarded the Prix HSBC pour la photographie [fr] by the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac in 2023.