'Mayrah Yarraga Dreise was born in Redcliffe, Queensland in 1971 while her parents were on holidays from Surat. Mayrah is a visual artist, poet and writer from a mixed heritage, belonging to the Yeeralaraay & Gamilaraay Language Groups of North West New South Wales and South West Queensland. Her younger life was spent living in a variety of paces including South West Queensland, the Northern Territory, Goodna and Inala.
'Mayrah's writing initially commenced as a complement to her community arts practice, writing several plays for community arts festivals in regional Queensland. In 1993 the stage production Through Murri Eyes was presented to the community of St George with over thirty Aboriginal youth involved in the play. For the Cooran Gorran festival in 2001, Mayrah wrote Invasion Dreaming, which was performed by Aboriginal youth and adults from Cherbourg and the Sunshine Coast and in 2004 Kenilworth School students presented the stage production Sacred Earth Beating Heart to the local community. Mayrah has written and presented several monologues, with Just Call Me Mary, featuring at the Woodford Folk Festival in 2003.
'Combining visual arts practice with text, Mayrah has developed her writing through, social commentary news feature writing, song lyrics and poetry. She has written for the National Indigenous Times, presented both nationally and internationally, and has developed visual and text based artworks and installations for over nineteen solo exhibitions in a variety of places including Mexico, Italy, Korea, Sydney, Brisbane, Noosa, Mitchell and Chinchilla and over forty group shows. '
*Source: Queensland Literary Awards (http://qldliteraryawards.org.au/about/shortlists/david-unaipon-award-shortlist#dreise). (Sighted: 11/9/2015)
