THE secret half-sister of mining heiress Gina Rinehart has told of her difficult early life, her relationship with her father Lang Hancock and her love for her nieces and nephew.

As Mrs Rinehart battles her children in court over control of their multi-billion-dollar family trust, Hilda Kickett, 68 - an Aboriginal elder who has long claimed to be Mr Hancock’s illegitimate daughter - said she wants people to know about the generosity of her nephew John, 36, who affectionately calls her ‘‘Auntie Hilda’’, and nieces Bianca, 33, Hope, 26, and Ginia, 25.

While she would not comment on the family feud, Mrs Kickett said: ''I just love them dearly, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for them if I could - that includes Gina.

''The thing is, who they are - they’re privileged to be who they are and they should never move away from that. But they are so down to earth. They’ve been out there, they know what it is all about.’’

Mrs Kickett, who is the spitting image of Mr Hancock, claims DNA tests proved she was his daughter.

The love child of a cook who struck up a relationship with Mr Hancock, she was born a decade before her half sister Georgina ‘‘Gina’’ Rinehart, now Australia’s richest person.

She was also christened Georgina, but now uses it as her second name after her mother Kathleen renamed her after an aunt.

Mrs Kickett became part of the stolen generation, raised in a Perth orphanage.

At her home in Geraldton, 400km north of Perth, Mrs Kickett said even during those dark years her father never forgot her.

She said: ‘‘I had nothing but the best. I had shoes, I would get three or four, or sometimes 10 pairs of shoes. But I used to share it out to all the girls because they had nothing.’’

One of her fondest memories of her father was when he took her to spend a week at his home.

She said: ‘‘We used to play on the river. He used to flick water. Gina was in this big blessed pram, I used to get her out and put her in the water, just put her to soak.’’

She insists that wanting a connection with her father and his relatives is not about money.

She said: ‘‘There’s none of this material gains or fortunate gains, all I wanted was to make that connection with him again.’’