Clare Ogilvie grew up at the Daintree Mission in Far North Queensland. She left school at age 13 to commence work as a housekeeper. During the week Ogilvie would stay with the white families she worked for and return to the Mission for the weekends.
She was moved to the Gorge Mission at Mossman when the Daintree Mission closed unexpectedly in the late 1950s. Ogilvie moved to Palm Island in 1966 because the authorities put her father into the old people's home there and they forced her to stay in the Mission's dormitory.
Ogilvie returned to Mossman in the late 1980s and she completed studies in English Literacy, Aboriginal Art and Hospitality before moving to Cairns to study Theology and teach her language. Ogilvie is also a self-taught musician who composes and performs songs in her language, Kuku Yalanji, to help keep her language and culture alive. She has also trained the Yalanji Choir.
