Clan groups: Indjalandji
Language groups: Alyawarr

Shirley Macnamara was born in northwest Queensland in 1949 and grew up on pastoral properties on the Barkly Tablelands in Queensland and in the Northern Territory.  She maintains close ties to her mother’s Country at Camooweal, Indjalandji Dhidhanu, and her late father’s Country at Lake Nash, Alyawarr. Today Macnamara is a respected artist, who also runs her own cattle station near Mount Isa, Queensland.

Most of the materials that Macnamara uses are found while out mustering. Materials include spinifex grass that she weaves into objects and sculptures that reference traditional Indjalandji Country surrounding Camooweal, and her home on Mt Guide in far north-west Queensland.

Macnamara’s sophisticated spinifex grass works are informed by age-old traditional weaving techniques and often incorporate different elements such as animal bones and feathers. These elements operate as spiritual codes and connectors to her culture while giving her work a highly individualised contemporary aesthetic.

The Gallery has commissioned Macnamara to create new work for exhibition, including a major installation in 2022 for the Faceless exhibition that was subsequently purchased for the Gallery’s Collection and, more recently, an installation for the 2025 exhibition Our Stories: Contemporary Indigenous Weaving.

In 2019, Macnamara had a retrospective exhibition at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane which included several works on loan from the Cairns Art Gallery Collection.

Macnamara’s work is represented in Australian public galleries and institutions, including the Cairns Art Gallery, Queensland. She is represented by Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne.