Almost sixty years after a series of natural disasters forced Sally Gabori, along with the other inhabitants of Bentinck Island, to relocate to Gununa on nearby Mornington Island, she was invited – then in her early eighties – to participate with other Kaiadilt people in an art workshop at the Mornington Island Art Centre. After only a few visits, it became clear that her early paintings – often bold, seemingly crude abstract depictions of the myriad fish found in the surrounding estuaries and sea – offered a unique and vibrant expression of her personal and family histories, drawn from memories of her early years on Bentinck Island.

Gabori’s expressive application of paint, laid down in thick brushstrokes and layered fields of colour, highlights both the immediacy of her process and the evident pleasure she took in mark-making. In Thundi, 2008, she eliminates superfluous detail – the geometric forms that dominated her early work dissolve, while subtle variations of colour and texture become the primary focus. The result is a luminous and expressive tribute to the landscape and history of her father’s country, Thundi, on Bentinck Island. Like much of the island, this area – flanking its north-eastern tip – is characterised by low-lying terrain, with a river that runs into a large salt pan bordered by mangroves and fills during the wet season. Nearby, a ridge of tall sandhills lines the island’s edge. Overpainted in white, the work evokes the ripple patterns of the sandflats, the frothing waters at the river mouth, the small waves lapping the shore, and the inundation of the area during extreme weather.

As Cara Pinchbeck observes, ‘Gabori’s works are a celebration of her homeland and illustrate a deep connection to country that has not diminished through separation. From her very earliest works, she has depicted aspects of her own beloved country as well as that of her brother, father and husband – including both geographical aspects of the landscape as well as the wildlife, specifically sea-life which is central to the landscape.’¹

1. Pinchbeck, C., ‘Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori’ in unDisclosed, 2nd National Indigenous Art Triennial, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2012, p. 64

CRISPIN GUTTERIDGE