The Land I Own - Gail Mabo's Painting now in NQHeritage

The Land I Own, by Gail Mabo, is one of the most treasured works in the James Cook University Art Collection and is particularly significant to the Eddie Koiki Mabo Library on the Bebegu Yumba Campus in Townsville.

"The Land I Own", by Gail Mabo, is a triptych showing several layers of earth, beginning with a dark blue sky at the top of the page, then moving through a red mountain range and several layers of earth, rocks and water as it moves deeper into the land. What looks like sinuous lines at first glance are actually black and white figures of spirits moving between the layers.
The Land I Own by Gail Mabo. © Gail Mabo, 2008.
Photograph by Fiona Melder.
Copyright protected. Not for download, reuse or distribution. 

So it is with great pleasure that we announce that this beautiful work of art is now part of our digital archive, NQHeritage@JCU. 

Having a high quality digital version of the artwork (with the artist's permission to display it in our repository) now allows people all over the world the opportunity to discover this important work of art and its story.

Gail Mabo is a multi-disciplinary artist, whose practices include dance, acting and visual art. The middle daughter of Eddie Koiki Mabo and Bonita Mabo, Gail was born (1965) and raised in Townsville.  With the family originally from Mer (Murray Island) in the Torres Strait, Eddie Koiki Mabo was the political activist and land rights campaigner whose crusade famously resulted in the Mabo Decision being handed down in the High Court on 3rd June 1992.

The Land I Own was purchased by JCU for the JCU Art Collection in 2008 and commemorates the official naming of the Eddie Koiki Mabo Library which occurred on the 21st of May 2008.  Gail’s artworks were featured in the first Eddie Koiki Mabo Library Art Exhibition in 2009, held the year after that momentous event. Gail spent a week as artist in residence as part of that first exhibition, working on several paintings and talking to library visitors about her art, her father and her people's connection with the land.

Gail Mabo sits on the floor next to some of her equipment and a painting in progress. She smiles up at the camera

Gail Mabo sits cross-legged on the floor of the Mabo Library as she works on one of her paintings. There is a plastic sheet protecting the carpet under Gail and the artwork, and a trolley containing her art supplies next to her.
Gail Mabo in 2009, working on some paintings in the Eddie Koiki Mabo Building

During this period she produced a range of colourful landscapes - multilayered works - which told of the indigenous connection to the Country, showing layers of rocks, sediment and water that extended far beneath the surface of the land with the spirits of the people moving between the layers of earth. These paintings illustrated the concept of the spirits of the people being intimately connected with the land itself - both the ancestors settling back into the earth, and the emerging generations rising from the depths.

Detail of "The Land I Own" shows long, slender black and white figures rising through a layer of water between layers of earth
Detail: The Land I Own by Gail Mabo. © Gail Mabo, 2008.
Photograph by Fiona Melder.
Copyright protected. Not for download, reuse or distribution. 

Since this time Gail has produced many new and diverse artworks. Currently, Taiga 2020 is on display at the Art Gallery of NSW.

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