Vernon Ah Kee was born in Innisfail, Queensland in 1967 to Merv and Margaret Ah Kee, who were Indigenous rights activists.
Like most other Indigenous people in Australia, the family was not included in the population census until 1971.
He is an Aboriginal Australian, of the Kuku Yalandji, Waanji, Yidinji and Ggu Yimithirr peoples in Queensland.
He also has some Chinese ancestry from his great-grandfather, but Ah Kee has stated that he identifies more with his Indigenous heritage.

His family moved to Cairns when he was a teenager, and Ah Kee sketched avidly at this time.
 
Ah Kee started his Bachelor of Visual Art at Queensland College of Art in Brisbane in 1996.
He majored in Contemporary Indigenous Australian art and earned his degree in 1998.
He then went on to do honours in fine art from 1999 to 2000, and then completed a doctorate in fine art from 2001 to 2007.
During his studies, he had two solo exhibitions hosted at his college's art gallery as part of his postgraduate work  – whitefella normal blackfella me in 2000 and con Text in 2007.

In 2014, his father died in a car accident.
In 2017 Ah Kee drew Portrait of My Father, a task that he described as a "labour of love".

Ah Kee suffered a heart attack in 2016 but managed to recover in time for his 2017 exhibition Not an animal or a plant.
Vernon Ah Kee was born in Innisfail, Queensland in 1967 to Merv and Margaret Ah Kee, who were Indigenous rights activists. Like most other Indigenous people in Australia, the family was not included in the population census until 1971. He is an Aboriginal Australian, of the Kuku Yalandji, Waanji, Yidinji and Ggu Yimithirr peoples in Queensland. He also has some Chinese ancestry from his great-grandfather, but Ah Kee has stated that he identifies more with his Indigenous heritage.
His family moved to Cairns when he was a teenager, and Ah Kee sketched avidly at this time.  
Ah Kee started his Bachelor of Visual Art at Queensland College of Art in Brisbane in 1996. He majored in Contemporary Indigenous Australian art and earned his degree in 1998. He then went on to do honours in fine art from 1999 to 2000, and then completed a doctorate in fine art from 2001 to 2007. During his studies, he had two solo exhibitions hosted at his college's art gallery as part of his postgraduate work  – whitefella normal blackfella me in 2000 and con Text in 2007.
In 2014, his father died in a car accident. In 2017 Ah Kee drew Portrait of My Father, a task that he described as a "labour of love".
Ah Kee suffered a heart attack in 2016 but managed to recover in time for his 2017 exhibition Not an animal or a plant.
Vernon Ah Kee