Hunting Ground at My Father's Country 2005

Editor: This is "Hunting Ground at My Father's Country," painted in 2005 by Sally Gabori. It’s an acrylic on canvas. I'm really struck by the boldness of the shapes and the unusual color palette. It feels very... powerful, but also a bit mysterious. How do you interpret this work? Curator: Gabori's paintings are powerful acts of cultural reclamation. Consider that she began painting in her 80s, depicting the landscape of Bentinck Island, her ancestral home. This painting isn’t just a pretty picture, but a visceral map – a cartographic assertion of Indigenous presence and knowledge violently disrupted by colonial forces and climate change. What do you think of when you hear the title “Hunting Ground”? Editor: Well, obviously it suggests a place to find food. But looking at these almost abstracted shapes... are we meant to see something beyond the literal act of hunting? Curator: Exactly. Think about what happens when a culture is forcibly displaced, how knowledge is transmitted and eroded. These shapes, colours, and compositions carry coded meanings, a visual language almost resisting erasure. Can you see any familiar shapes? Does anything about the design of the painting speak to themes of environmental concerns to you? Editor: Now that you mention it, I can see almost bird-like shapes, but abstract of course. Knowing that she painted this later in life after displacement makes it seem incredibly poignant. It's not just a landscape; it's a statement. Curator: Precisely. It challenges the traditional Western canon and inserts an Indigenous perspective, reminding us of the enduring legacy of dispossession and the vital need to listen to marginalized voices in art history. It serves as both documentation and celebration. Editor: I didn't see all of that at first. I was focused on the aesthetics, the colors, and lines. Thank you, I really learned so much today. Curator: Indeed. Art often hides these stories, waiting to be uncovered.