Having spent weeks collecting materials and inspiration in her mother’s tribal heartland, Connelly-Northey this week installed her major new artwork at MAMA in Albury.

“I have been cruising around on country; I like to walk on country and take it all in,” she said.

“My mum would like me to go back to Swan Hill more often but all mums want their kids to come home!”

Now a grandmother herself, Connelly-Northey said her approach to art was informed by her mother’s Aboriginal heritage and her Irish father’s deep respect for the land.

She said while she used salvaged materials found in the bush for her artworks, it was not often easy.

“People think you can just jump the fence but you can’t because materials lying in a farmer’s back paddock are their spare parts factory,” she said.

Connelly-Northey said she had travelled past three rolls of wire on a stock route for two years before she was able to trace the owner.

She said that wire now formed part of My Three Rivers Country on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney

“They (wire owners) told me to take it because it was an eyesore!” Connelly-Northey said.

“I’m not willing to take something even off a stock route; a farmer’s daughter has to do it respectfully.”

Connelly-Northey, who calls herself a Waradgerie artist in line with her grandfather’s spelling, said her parents had taught her to use her mind and hands.

Her giant sculpture, On Country, will fill the foyer wall at MAMA throughout the Landmarks exhibition, which opens on Friday.

The work uses barbed wire, pressed metal, timber and other salvaged materials to create a three-dimensional map of the Murray River and the settlements of Albury and Wodonga.

“Rather than call it Waradgerie Country, I chose to call the work On Country to highlight that the river shouldn’t be a separation; it’s a resource,” she said.

“The tribes from both sides would have naturally overlapped to share the one resource rather than see it as a border.”

Connelly-Northey will speak at MAMA on November 9 at 5.30pm.