Glenys Collard was born in a wheatbelt town in the Southwest-east of Western Australia. She has 14 siblings and at the age of two was forcibly removed from her parents to live at Sister Kate's Children's Home along with three of her siblings. She suffered abuse at the home and in many of the families she was placed with for short-term stays.
Collard's story was recorded by the National Library of Australia for the Bringing Them Home oral history project and appeared in the associated publication Many Voices: Reflections on experiences of Indigenous child separation edited by Doreen Mellor and Anna Haebich (2002).