Cirrus@Austlit

The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture (ed. Sylvia Kleinert and Margo Neale, 2000) comments that Meeks 'is a pioneer of urban contemporary Aboriginal art, and a noted writer and illustrator of children's books which explore stories and imagery of Cape York (Qld).' Meeks moved to North Queensland with his mother when he was a baby and grew up on the Queensland coast near Dunk Island. He lived with his grandfather, one of the Kokoimudji people from the Cooktown area. As a boy his grandfather had begun initiation into the Kokoimudji tribe in the Laura area but was taken with his family to live at Yarrabah Reserve before completing the process. Meeks's grandfather taught him love and respect for the bush and the spirits that live there.

Having begun to draw at an early age using clay and berries for paint and his own hair for brushes, Meeks was encouraged by a cousin who bought paint and paper for him and offered strength and guidance. He completed a Bachelor of Arts (Visual Arts) degree at the City Art Institute in Sydney in 1984. He later returned to Queensland to study with tribal elders, including the Lardil people of Mornington Island. Thancoupie, a distinguished ceramicist, adopted him and gave him the tribal name of Arone (Black Crane) which included the right to express the culture and legends of the Cape York people in his art.

Meeks was a foundation member of the Boomalli urban Aboriginal Arts Co-operative in Sydney. In 1989 he won an Australia Council fellowship to study in Paris and exhibited throughout Europe and North and South America. He began printmaking in 1982 in collaboration with printmaker Theo Tremblay. A cultural exchange to Santa Fe in the United States during the 1990s also influenced his work. Meeks exhibited nationally and internationally with works in most public collections within Australia.