Wanda Gibson

Born: 15/11/1946
Language: Guugu Yimithirr
Totem : Thuka (Goanna) & Waandarr (White Cockatoo)
Clan: Nugal Warra

Biography

Wanda was born in the Woorabinda hospital in 1946. Her family had been moved from Cape Bedford and interned at Woorabinda Settlement (west of Rockhampton) during WW2. The Australian Government considered the Lutheran Missions in Cape York a threat to national security. After the war, Wanda and her family were moved back to a new settlement in Hope Valley called Hope Vale.

Wanda’s totems are the Thuka (Goanna) on her father’s side and the Waandarr (White Cockatoo) on her mother’s side.

She is a fluent Guugu Yimithirr speaker and important elder for the Nugal Warra clan group.

Wanda belongs to the Gamba Gamba group (senior women) at the art centre. Artworks by the gamba draw on traditional Guugu Yimmithirr Warra culture and contemporary and mission time histories. The women hold deep cultural knowledge of family kinship systems, sacred sites, esoteric characters and totems and are passionate about recording language and traditional stories to preserve and hand down to the younger generations.

She’s been one of the art centre’s longest practicing artists. Wanda is also a gifted weaver and master dilly bag maker.

Wanda completed a Diploma in Visual Arts through Cairns Institute of TAFE.

Themes Mediums
Hope Vale Mission History Print Making
Woorabinda Acrylic on Belgian Linen
Captain Cook’s 48 days in ,Wabalumbaal Jewellery
Weaving
Group Exhibitions
2020
Endeavour Voyage: The Untold Stories of Cook and the First Australians – National Museum of Australia, Canberra ACT

2019
ARTNOW FNQ 2019 – Cairns Art Gallery, Cairns QLD

2019
Cairns Indigenous Art Fair 2019 – Cairns Cruise Liner Terminal, Cairns QLD

2018
Cairns Indigenous Art Fair 2018 – Cairns Cruise Liner Terminal, Cairns QLD

2018
PSBA & QPS NAIDOC Art 2018 Exhibition – Brisbane, QLD

2017
Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair 2017 – From Country to Couture – Darwin Convention Centre, Darwin NT

2016
Cairns Indigenous Art Fair 2016 – Cairns Cruise Liner Terminal, Cairns QLD

2015
Cairns Indigenous Art Fair 2015 – Cairns Cruise Liner Terminal, Cairns QLD

2014
Cairns Indigenous Art Fair 2014 – Cairns Cruise Liner Terminal, Cairns QLD

2013
Kinship – The Tanks Art Centre, Cairns QLD

2012
Cairns Indigenous Art Fair 2012 – Cairns Cruise Liner Terminal, Cairns QLD