Cynthia was first taught weaving skills by her mother, the renowned artist and Tjanpi staff member, Jean Burke (dec.). In 2013, Cynthia contributed weaving and media skills to Tjilkamarta Minyma Kutjarra Munu Wati Ngirntaka Warta (Two Porcupine Wives and Perentie Man Tree), which was exhibited as part of the String Theory exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney NSW. Other notable exhibitions Cynthia has been involved in include Fingers and Petals at Ellenbrook Gallery in Perth in 2013, Revealed at Fremantle Arts Centre in 2017, 2018 and 2019, and AIATSIS – Resurgence at the National Museum of Australia, Canberra ACT in 2019. Cynthia was also a finalist in the 2015 Outback Open Prize at the Broken Hill Art Gallery NSW.

In 2016, Cynthia began working with Tjanpi Desert Weavers at the remote office in Warakurna. In this time, she has learnt to run the core operations of this office and visits over eight communities to support Tjanpi artists. She also co-produced the Tjanpi animation Ngayuku Papa with animator Jonathan Daw, telling the story of her dog, Tiny, as well as being a key collaborating artist in a project with FORM and Polyglot Theatre.

Tjanpi (meaning ‘dry grass’) evolved from a series of basket weaving workshops held on remote communities in the Western Desert by the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunyjatjara Women’s Council in 1995. Building on traditions of using fibre for medicinal, ceremonial and daily purposes, women took easily to making coiled baskets. These new-found skills were shared with relations on neighbouring communities and weaving quickly spread. Today over 400 women across 28 communities are making baskets and sculptures out of grass and working with fibre in this way is firmly embedded in Western and Central desert culture. While out collecting desert grasses for their fibre art, women visit sacred sites and traditional homelands, hunt and gather food for their families and teach their children about country.