Miyapu Mary Meribida
Born about 1930
Yulparija language group, Panaka skin group
Bidyadanga Community
Yulparija Artists, Short Street Gallery
[My family were] right there, Kinyu (Jarntu, Well 35). Right up near Stock Road. That’s my country.
Mary Meribida’s country includes Yalta, Punmu and Jarntu. After her father passed away, Mary travelled north west with her mother, Kupi, Rover Thomas’ sister. In the 1960’s they moved to La Grange mission, which became Bidyadanga Community, where Mary lives today with her husband, Donald Moko.
Punmu
2008, by Mary Meribida
acrylic on canvas, 137×137 cm
Yulparija Artists, Short Street Gallery
National Museum of Australia
This is Punmu Country near Well 33, [west] of the Canning Stock Route. He got a well, this Country, for cattle. This is my Country. We been walk ’em, no clothes, nothing. We proper bush people, no English.
In this painting two waterholes are depicted: Punmu, to the left, and Nyirla, an important ceremonial site, east of the stock route. Between these two waters lies the invisible thread of the Canning Stock Route.
Mary Meribida is the daughter of Rover Thomas’s sister Kupi, who left the desert with Mary and travelled north-west. They eventually settled at Bidyadang on the Kimberley coast.