Kerry Madawyn McCarthy was born at Daly River in 1975. The daughter of an Irish father and indigenous mother and sister of Helen Tyalmuty McCarthy, Kerry was brought up in the Daly River community learning both the ways of non-indigenous society and respect and understanding for the indigenous traditions of the bush. She began painting around 1994 originally pursuing the traditional style of the area, which focuses on depictions of animals and plants. However, following completion of a tertiary course in Art and Craft from Bachelor Institute of Advanced Education, Kerry’s style changed to subjects associated with indigenous tradition. This change was also influenced her grandfather and her spending two years bush at her mother’s home country at Bulgul. Kerry is a gifted colourist, precise in her work and continually exploring new means of expression of her stories of life and tradition in the Top End. Her compositions are like minutely observed cross-sections of nature that reveal the delicate patterning and relationships of the smallest elements.