Mary Meribida

Yulparija Language Group

“Ilyara”

60 x 60 cm

Acrylic on linen

Ref No: MM22022

SOLD

"This is my country, Ilyara This is where I was born, I travelled around this place as a young
women walking through the sand dunes(Tali) collecting Mayi (bushfood) with my mother. It is camel and dingo country. This is when it is wet season and water fills the country, making
everything green."

Mary was born circa 1938 at Ilyara (Punmu) and lived there throughout her childhood. She travelled around her country with her family. Until the early 1970s, she lived a traditional life and says, "We been walk 'em, no clothes, nothing. We proper bush people, no English." Mary is a part of the Yulparija people who walked out of the desert to the coastal town of Bidyadanga in search of water after severe drought had plagued their land. Mary now lives at Bidyadanga with her husband, the artist Donald Moko.