As of 2019[update] r e a is a lecturer within the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Unit at the University of Queensland.
[2] r e a initially studied a TAFE course in Electrical Trades at Petersham, New South Wales in 1989, and then started to move towards art a year later enrolled to studying Creative Arts at the Eora Centre in Darlington, New South Wales.
[3] r e a started to exhibit work in 1990 at the Eora Centre, then in 1992, in their second year undergraduate at CoFA, University of New South Wales.
[6] and True Colours: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Artists Raise the Flag.
[8] in 1997, at the Boomalli Aboriginal Artists' Co-op they had a solo exhibition as a part of the 1997 Festival of the Dreaming: a celebration of the art and culture of Indigenous peoples from around the world called EYE/I'MMABLAKPIECE.