Category: Australian Indigenous Collection

Sally Gabori’s ‘Makarrki’ is layered with memories of home

Posted by QAGOMA   ●   4 Oct 2022

Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori was born by a small tidal creek around 1924 on the south side of Bentinck Island, of the South Wellesley Island Group in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Far North Queensland. Her Kayardild language name, Mirdidingkingathi, means ‘born at Mirdidingki’, her country on Bentinck Island, and Juwarnda means ‘dolphin’, her totem. Gabori…

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Art and cars: Kayili artists

Posted by Diane Moon   ●   28 Sep 2022

Kayili artists Mary Gibson, Mrs Kumana Ward, Pulpurru Davies, Nola Campbell and Jackie Kurltjunyintja Giles have each indulged a love of colour, animating their car bonnet’s surface with shimmering, cryptic, topographical maps of their country, and the ancestral journeys that formed it. Patjarr, home to the Kayili artists, is a small community of around 20–30…

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Margaret Rarru Garrawurra creates timeless forms

Posted by QAGOMA   ●   9 Aug 2022

Arnhem Land artist Margaret Rarru Garrawurra has won the prestigious National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award for 2022 with a work featuring her signature rich black-dyed pandanus which she is renowned for. A closely-guarded process she discovered through rigorous experimentation, the dense charcoal coloration emphases the hand-weaving process. You can view works by…

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Transitions Now: Contemporary Aboriginal Forms & Images

Posted by QAGOMA   ●   4 Aug 2022

In ‘Transitions Now: Contemporary Aboriginal Forms and Images’ at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), innovative textured and sculpted works illustrate Aboriginal Australian artists’ ongoing commitment to declaring their identity and vital presence in contemporary society. In dynamic juxtapositions, individual and group artistic statements predominate over strictly held categories, demonstrating the immeasurable contribution Aboriginal artists…

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Warriors without a weapon

Posted by Katina Davidson   ●   4 Jul 2022

In these intimate intergenerational portraits, Naomi Hobson shares an affectionate representation of Kaantju and Umpila boys, men and elders from her community. Adorned in vibrant flowers found in their hometown of Coen in far north Queensland, these ‘warriors without a weapon’ share the cultural practice of decorating their beards in preparation of ceremony and to…

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The inaugural QAGOMA Reconciliation Action Plan

Posted by Guest   ●   25 May 2022

QAGOMA invited artist Tony Albert, whose connection to the Gallery spans more than two decades, to speak at the recent launch of Gallery’s first Reconciliation Action Plan. The following is the edited transcript of his speech, which both moved and entertained those in attendance. On the occasion of the inaugural QAGOMA Reconciliation Action Plan My…

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