[1] She was one of four children of Richard Carey, a farmer who had emigrated to New Zealand from Australia in the 1870s,[2] and his wife Elizabeth née Keeble.
He encouraged her to study in Sydney under John Samuel Watkins, and later that year Carey made the first of several trips to Australia for tuition during the 1920s and 1930s.
In 1924, She was elected a member of the Royal Art Society of New South Wales and her work featured regularly in their exhibitions.
[1] In the 1950s, Carey travelled to Europe and a series of works were produced from the experience, including portraits of actors and dancers from the theatrical scene in London.
During her convalescence she was inspired to start a new art project: to produce a portrait of every living Māori woman with a moko.
This work took ten years, during which she travelled around the North Island finding sitters and painting their portraits on the condition that they be given to local galleries and museums.
[1] In poor health, Carey vacated her residence in 1980 and moved to the Trevellyn Home, a retirement village, in Hamilton.
[8] The playwright Campbell Smith wrote a play based on the life of Carey, titled Ada and I, which was performed in Hamilton in 2014.