Bertha Linty was born at Ilyarra, her mother and father's country, and grew up on Wallal Station. She travelled around the Great Sandy Desert country as a young woman.
She says of Ilyarra: "It has lots of tali (sand dunes): it is a special place for me. Lots of people camped here because it has water and lots of mayi (bushfoods). On one side is warla (mud flat), which floods with milk water when it rains."
Linty left this desert country and came to Bidyadanga for a meeting and never left. In mid 2003, the senior people at Bidyadanga met with Emily Rohr, director of Short Street Gallery (Broome), and a regular visitor to the community, requesting art materials so that they could start painting. Linty was one of the first to experiment with acrylic on paper and then canvas.
Her work was exhibited in the first Bidyadanga Artists group show Manjiliyajarra: An exhibition by the Yulparija and Mangala artists, Short Street Gallery, Broome, 2003. She also participated in the major contemporary exhibition 2004: Australian Visual Culture Now, The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, 2004.
