Mary was born near Town Bore Creek, east of Papunya, in the year the settlement was officially opened, 1960. Mary identifies Walpiri as her language group but nominates the area around Haast’s Bluff, where she grew up, as her country.

Mary often paints Witchetty Grub dreaming, women’s body paint and a Milky Way dreaming concerning the origins of Venus, Orion and the Pleieades.

Her work has been widely exhibited, including the Gauguin Museum in Tahiti and the Chapman gallery in Canberra. She has been included in a number of publications on the work of the painters operating through the Centre for Aboriginal Arts.