Sally Gabori

Sally Gabori was a senior woman of the Kaiadilt tribe from the South Wellesley Islands, in the Southern Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland. She spoke the Kayardild language. Her tribal name is Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda. Juwarnda means ‘black dophin’ which is her totemic sign and Mirdidingkingathi means ‘born at Mirdidingki’, in her country on the south side of Bentinck Island. She was born around 1924 and lived a completely traditional life, with practically no contact with non-Kaiadilt people, fishing and gathering shellfish and vegetable foods, and maintaining the stone fish walls around the shores of Bentinck Island. This changed in the early 1940’s, when missionaries transported the entire Kaiadilt population from their tribal lands to the mission on Mornington Island. She then lived on Mornington Island until the late 1980’s, when the Kaiadilt began to re-establish themselves on their ancestral lands, building a number of outstations on Bentinck Island. Mother and grandmother to a large family and the living repository of a wealth of tribal lore, she lived on Mornington Island. Throughout her life she was an accomplished producer of traditional handicrafts made from bush products such as Pandanus fibres and Hibiscus bark woven into string.
Dr Nicholas Evans, for Sally Gabori

With a style that incorporates brilliant colours and strong designs, Gabori’s paintings are related to earth and country, food gathering and storytelling places.

Mrs Gabori passed away on Fenruary 12 2015.