Takariya's family lived in isolation in the desert. They had never come into contact with Euro-Australian society. Most of their relatives had been settled into towns on the edges of the desert. The group's leader, Lanti, had decided that they would stay living in the desert. Takariya and her family finally came into contact with some of their relatives in 1984. They were settled at Kiwirrkurra, on the south edge of Lake Mackay. The event was big news at the time, and the family became famously known as "the last nomads". Takariya was in her mid- to late-20s at the time.