Dr Elizabeth Marrkilyi Ellis is a senior Ngaanyatjarra lore woman, artist, writer, educator, researcher and linguist from the Ngaanyatjarra Lands of the Gibson desert in WA.
Elizabeth has committed her life to supporting and facilitating communication between her Ngaanyatjarra people, who were the last uncontacted Indigenous tribe by Western culture in Australia, and the non-Indigenous people in our Australian community.
In her work, Elizabeth navigates extreme cultural divides and differences, and in doing so brings people together from vastly different world views to a place of understanding.
This work has been recognised by the Australian National University in the form of an honorary doctorate, which Elizabeth received in 2019 after 3 years of research and consultancy investigating Western Desert speech styles and verbal art. Elizabeth was awarded Australian Research Council grant called Discovery Indigenous Fellowship for this work.