Gail Mabo

Kylie Kwong celebrates the individuals helping to grow a stronger community. This month, for the final edition of this feature, we meet inspirational multidisciplinary artist Gail Mabo.

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AN ARTIST AND CULTURAL CUSTODIAN FROM Mer Island in the Torres Strait, Gail Mabo's practice stretches from dance to visual arts. She is a born storyteller, the kind you could listen to all day, weaving one tale into the next with an ease that feels both intimate and expansive.

Her creativity took root in a bustling childhood home, with parents Eddie Koiki Mabo and Bonita Mabo, whose fight for land rights and social justice helped shape modern Australia and deeply influenced her outlook. “Being a very curious person, I actually found my own lane because Mum and Dad had seven of us,” she says. The middle child, she found herself “too old for the little ones, and bossed around by the big ones”, so she carved her own way. “I preferred to stay outside with my dad,” she recalls. He worked as a gardener, and so the outdoors became her playground and her classroom. Her mother was a talented seamstress who made Mabo's debutante ball dress, and her father painted watercolours. “I think I've got my gift from watching, adapting and doing,” she says.