Dibirdibi Country (Hunting Ground) 2007

Curator: Ah, yes, Sally Gabori’s "Dibirdibi Country (Hunting Ground)," created in 2007 using acrylic on canvas. Editor: Whoa! Okay, immediate gut reaction? Playful. Like a giant, color-blocked game of Tetris gone gloriously wrong. I’m getting real childlike joy from this. Curator: It's interesting you say that. There’s a raw, uninhibited quality to her work that resonates. The painting can be understood as a visual map of Bentinck Island, Gabori's homeland. "Dibirdibi" itself translates to "father's country". She started painting quite late in life, imbuing her art with a deep connection to her ancestral land and memories. Editor: Oh, I love that. Suddenly those bright shapes feel less like playful blocks and more like… memories rendered in pigment. Like a child's map of the heart. The pink…maybe that’s a sunset memory? And the harsh delineation between colors almost reads as… division. The contrast. But that’s probably just my own psyche talking! Curator: Well, that interpretation is not entirely unwarranted. Remember the cultural context: Gabori was a Kaiadilt woman. Her people were the original inhabitants of Bentinck Island and their traditional way of life was disrupted by forced relocation. Her paintings act as a visual reclamation of that history, imbued with the emotional resonance of displacement. Editor: Right. That makes those bold swathes of color all the more poignant, doesn't it? This isn't just a pretty picture; it’s a testament to survival, a visual story etched in ochre and magenta. Even the application of paint…the rawness of it feels significant. There's this wonderful almost childlike immediacy to the gestures... Curator: Precisely. There is an almost inherent indigenous form about it which comes with strong cultural memory. Editor: Knowing all that… wow. I’m seeing the land, the stories. It transforms completely. That little white…rectangle? Is that like a safe space or new modern block buildings of today perhaps? It speaks volumes about both vulnerability and resilience. Curator: It's an invitation, wouldn't you agree? Editor: An invitation indeed. The piece makes me consider how place and identity are deeply intertwined, wouldn't you agree? And that makes her abstract language intensely powerful.