Boundary Street: 2020
Daisy Hamlot
Daisy Hamlot (nee Bowen) is a senior Thuupi Warra elder, painting from the HopeVale Arts and Cultural Centre on Guugu Yimithirr country.
My painting is about racism.
During the COVID-19 lockdown lots of Wangarr were angry about Cape York being locked away from Cairns. They believed that it was the Bama's fault that they wanted the government to lock away the Bama so that they could keep travelling freely. This reminded me of the old days when a lot of Wangarr didn't like Bama, and they kept a lot of Bama segregated. That's where the name of Boundary street came from, that was the street they put up to separate Black from White.
I know that still today lots of white people don't like Blak people. It makes me sorry that these attitudes came out during COVID-19. They shouldn't hate - God made us all and we are all equal.
— Daisy Hamlot, 2020
Daisy Hamlot, Boundary Street: 2020, 2020, acrylic painting on cotton canvas, 60 x 60cm
Daisy Hamlot holding Boundary Street: 2020 (2020) acrylic painting on cotton canvas, 60cm x 60cm
Daisy Hamlot (nee Bowen) is a senior Thuupi Warra elder. She was born at Cape Bedford in 1937 to Ted and Nancy Bowen. Her totems are the Waandarr (White Cockatoo) from her father's side and Ngamu Ngaagau (Dingo) on her mother's side. Daisy was only 5 years old when her family were removed from Cape Bedford and interned at Wooribinda Settlement (west of Rockhampton) during World War II. The Australian Government considered the Lutheran Missions in Cape York a threat to national security.
Daisy 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.
Daisy loves participating in the art centre's many workshops, including natural dying on silk, lino print & textiles. She and the other gamba (old ladies) love to laugh and recall stories of the “Old Days”.