Mulyatingki Marney is the sister of fellow artists Donald Moko (dec.), May Wokka (Mayiwalku) Chapman and Nancy Nyanjilpayi Chapman. She was born at Nyinyari, near the Canning Stock Route. Her country encompasses the Punmu, Kunawarritji and Karlamilyi River regions. Mulyatingki walked extensively through this area with her family as a young girl. Following the death of her parents, the sisters continued to travel in the desert alone, though at times they would meet and travel with other family groups.

When her family saw white people for the first time, they hid from them in a cave until nightfall. With the construction of the Canning Stock Route in 1910, they increasingly came into contact with European and Martu drovers travelling along the Route. Finally, following an extreme and prolonged drought, Mulyatingki’s family walked into Balfour Downs Station, where they were collected by mission staff and taken to Jigalong Mission. They were one of the last families to leave the desert. In 1982, after living for many years at Jigalong Mission, Mulyatingki returned to her homelands with the Return to Country movement. Today, Mulyatingki continues to live in Punmu Community with her sister Nyanjilpayi.

This painting depicts Mulyatingki’s ngurra (home Country, camp); the land she walked as a young child. Her Country, the Manyjilyjarra region, is located within the central Great Sandy Desert of northwest Western Australia. Features of the landscape are here portrayed aerially with geographical familiarity, including tali (sandhills), warta (vegetation), and the many life sustaining water sources known intimately through both real life experience and the recounting of jukurrpa (dreamtime) narratives.