Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori (1924–2015) was a contemporary Indigenous Australian artist whose vibrant abstract paintings express an extraordinary connection to Country, memory, and cultural inheritance. Born on Bentinck Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland, she was a member of the Kaiadilt people. Throughout her life, Gabori played an important role in maintaining Kaiadilt cultural practices, including the construction of stone-walled fish traps, bark string making, and the preservation of traditional songs.
Gabori began painting professionally in 2005, at the age of 81, through an occupational therapy program at the Mornington Island Arts and Crafts Centre. Drawing on her deep knowledge of Country, ancestral histories, and cultural memory, she developed a distinctive visual language characterized by vibrant colour, expressive brushwork, and rhythmic compositions. Her paintings depict the landscapes and seascapes of Bentinck Island and places of profound personal significance, including Dibirdibi Country (her husband’s land), Thundi (her father’s Country), Mirdidingki (her own Country), and Nyinyilki. Each painting is an intuitive expression of her relationship with homeland, transforming memory, spirituality, and lived experience into a unique abstract language.
Gabori’s work gained national and international recognition rapidly. Her paintings are held in major Australian state and national collections, as well as international institutions including the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain (Paris, France); Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac (Paris, France); the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia (Charlottesville, USA); Auckland Art Gallery (Auckland, New Zealand); Fondation Burkhardt-Felder (Môtiers, Switzerland); and ARTIZON Museum (Tokyo, Japan).
Her work has been celebrated through major exhibitions, including the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (Brisbane, Australia, 2016); the National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne, Australia, 2016); Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain (Paris, France, 2022–2023); and Triennale Milano (Milan, Italy, 2023). These exhibitions were developed in collaboration with Gabori’s family and the Kaiadilt community.