SPEAKER_01: The storied legacy of Mercedes-Benz is rooted in empowered women who've gone on to show the world what they can accomplish. This July, Wamanica has teamed up with Mercedes-Benz to feature women who've charted their own paths and achieved greatness. Join us on this journey as we celebrate women who were driven to pursue their passions, even if it meant changing course along the way. This month on Wamanica, we're talking about dynamos. Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Wamanica. Before we get started with today's episode, I just want to share a disclaimer for Aboriginal peoples. This episode contains the name of someone who's died. This month, we're highlighting women who've led dynamic lives that have shifted, evolved, and bloomed, often later in life. Today we're talking about a woman who started painting in her early 80s. She channeled the pain and pride of her home island into acrylic masterpieces. In quite a short period, she became one of the most famous Aboriginal artists of her time. Let's talk about Sally Gabori. Sally was born around 1924 in Bentink Island, off the coast of Queensland, Australia. The island is low-lying and flat, with scrubby plants and trees and sandy beaches, sea turtles and coral reefs just off the shore. Sally was raised traditionally in her Kaidal community. She was known for her skills with weaving and making bags. She spoke her native language, Kaidild, and very little English. The Kaidal people had almost no contact with European Australians until the late 1940s. In 1948, a combination of drought, tidal surges, and storms ruined the fresh water supply. The small, isolated community on Bentink was forced to leave their homeland. They moved to nearby Mornington Island. A Presbyterian mission there had been trying to get the Kaidal people to leave Bentink for years, and they took advantage of this moment. Sally was in her 20s when she had to leave her home. Once they got to Mornington, Sally's family was separated. Her children were taken to a mission school, where they lived in a gender-segregated dormitory. It was a traumatizing experience for the community. The Kaidal people didn't have a strong painting art tradition. But that all changed when Sally's artistic career began in 2005. She was in her early 80s and living in a facility for the elderly. One day as a part of occupational therapy, she was given a set of acrylic paints and brushes. In that moment, Sally began creating works of art, painting landscapes and stories of the places of her home island. The paintings were brightly colored, full of feeling and energy, more abstract than representative. Sweeping yellows and blues, fuchsia ovals and undulating orange. She made large-scale works with large brushes. The art teacher at the center took notice. In no time, Sally became a painter, sought after by collectors. Part of the intense interest in her work was colonial fetishization. Sally's story was unique. Because of her age, she had an air of cultural authenticity. That, plus she'd had little contact with English-speaking settlers. And she seemed to appear out of nowhere, from the perspective of the mostly white art collectors. Sally really took to painting. She was incredibly productive, creating up to seven large pieces in just a day. It only took her a year to produce a catalog of hundreds of pieces of art. Her work was featured in more than 20 exhibitions. She even had solo shows in major galleries. And her art was lauded internationally. In 2013, she was featured at the Venice Biennale. But Sally had little agency in deciding which pieces made it to exhibits. Other people determined what was good enough to show. The rest was stored in a shipping container or burned at the local dump. It's hard to know how Sally felt about that. Very few people left spoke her native language. Plus, her commercial art success came late in life, when she was already in declining health. Sally did seem to enjoy painting. And she found joy in her art. At exhibits, she could be found singing and dancing in front of her work. Sally also sold many of her paintings. But her great talents were exploited, a fact that was unknown until after she died. Years after her death, a manager of the Mornington Island Art Center was sentenced to four and a half years of jail time. He was ordered to pay more than $400,000 Australian dollars in reparations to artists, the art center, and the estate of Sally Gabori. For years, he'd been selling Aboriginal artists' work and keeping the proceeds that should have gone to the artists. He did this for 176 paintings, of which Sally had painted 169. In 2012, Sally stopped painting because of her health. She died in February of 2015. Sally Gabori's short time as an artist was incredibly influential. Fewer women from Bentink Island began painting. They also now use bright acrylics to capture the beauty of their homeland, which they were forced to leave so long ago. Sally's daughters, Elsie, Amanda, and Dorothy, are among those painters. All month, we're highlighting dynamos. For more information, check us out on Facebook and Instagram at Womanica Podcast. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. Talk to you tomorrow.
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