Carmel Nicholson is an artist. She was born on a station near Quilpie, Queensland. At the age of six years, Nicholson was removed from her family and moved to the Salvation Army Home and then Good Shepherd Sisters Home for Girls. She stayed for thirty years and worked in the kitchen and laundry from the age of fourteen and remained in touch with her mother throughout. Nicholson has lived in Sydney.
Nicholson'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).