Born in Wyndham in 1939, Taylor grew up in Oombulgurri, (formerly Forrest River Mission), with her parents and grandparents, King David and Ethel. She learned painting from the old people by watching their ground paintings and painted for the first time in 2009. Mary moved to Kalumburu in 2005 to be with two of her seven children.
Mary is one of the Traditional Owners for the Balingarra land claim, determined in August 2013.
Her Bush Name is Umagarri (swamp site), her Oombulgurri Dreamings are: Gari-Ali (goanna), Gin-Gun (Barramundi), Dorungi (cat fish) and Malarru (prawn). Mary paints her mother’s country Jinangi (Camera Pool on the Forrest River, northwest of Wyndham) and also the country of her husband.
“The Berkeley River area is my husband’s country. We go here for camping out and fishing. Along the river there are large stones and rocks with trees growing out of them. When we have a ‘bogey’ (shower) we lie down on the flat rocks (tessellated rocks) to dry off.”
Today Taylor is one of the Traditional Owners for the Balanggarra Native Title area, which extends from Kalumburu in the north Kimberley to her grandparents country along the western border of the Cambridge Gulf in the east. In 2005 she moved to Kalumburu to be with two of her children.
Classed as ‘emerging’ by the art industry, recognition of her work has slowly been gaining momentum. Fortuitously at the very beginning of her career she was selected for the 27th NATSIAA at the Museum and Gallery of Northern Territory. Since 2010 she has been exhibited in gallery group shows, prominently featured at the Kira Kiro art centre stall at the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair, selected for the 2012 TAFE Central Gallery Revealed Exhibition of Emerging Indigenous Artists from WA, a finalist in the Port Hedland Art Award, and has had an artwork purchased by the Artbank Australia collection.
