Sally Gabori

Sally Gabori (Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda) (Australia, circa 1924 – 2015) 

Sally Gabori began to paint at 81 years of age. Though her artistic odyssey was brief (just 10 years), the trajectory of her success defied the constraints of age and convention. In 2005, armed with art materials in the sanctuary of her aged care home on Mornington Island, and unfamiliar with the nuances of contemporary art, she embarked upon a journey that reshaped the Australian art landscape.

Her early life on Bentinck Island in Equatorial Queensland was disrupted by Presbyterian missionaries in 1948. The Kaiadilt inhabitants were evacuated, and their cultural practices were outlawed; their language faced extinction. As she aged, Gabori, one of the last speakers of Kaiadilt, became a senior cultural custodian.

When Gabori, a skilled weaver, turned to painting, her loaded brush conveyed the outpouring of emotion and ideas, weaving place and memory into uninhibited fields of colour and shape. Within a matter of months, she found herself surrounded by people at her first solo show in Brisbane. It was a sell-out. Beyond her passing in 2015, her stellar trajectory has persisted. 

Received with a rapturous response, her work was shown at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art during the G20 summit of 2014.  The paintings were a tapestry of historical and legendary stories, encapsulating the island's flora, fauna, and cultural landmarks.

Gabori's legacy has shattered stereotypical notions of contemporary Indigenous painting, injecting the genre with new perspectives in both theory and practice. Her journey from traditional crafts to a celebrated artist has challenged preconceptions and left an indelible mark on the Australian art scene.