Community: Yuendumu

DOB: 1973

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Maria is renowned for her paintings depicting the arrival of the Pamapardu (Flying Ants) after the big rain, when you can see them everywhere. When they lose their wings, the ants build their nests in the termite mounds. This is Maria’s Dreaming, and the story is from Maria’s Father's Walpiri Country, west of Yuendumu.

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Maria's 'Seven Sisters Milky Way' paintings are also highly sought after. In ‘Seven Sisters Milky Way’, Maria depicts the story of seven of ancestral sisters who are found in the night sky in the cluster of seven stars known as the Pleiades constellation (or Taurus). The Pleiades are seven women who are often depicted in paintings of this Jukurrpa (Dreaming) carrying the Jampijinpa man ‘wardilyka’ (the bush turkey) who is in love with the seven sisters, who represents the Orion’s Belt cluster of stars. Jukurra-jukurra, the morning star, is a Jakamarra man who is also in love with the seven sisters and is often shown chasing them across the night sky. In a final attempt to escape from the Jakamarra, the sisters turned themselves into fire and ascended to the heavens to become stars. (Source: Warlukurlangu Artists of Yuendumu).

Maria was taught to paint by her late Grandmother, Bessie Nakamarra Sims, and her late Grandfather, Paddy Japaljarri Sims, a long time ago.