Daisy Hamlot from Hopevale Art Center

Daisy Hamlot (nee Bowen) is a senior Thuupi Warra elder. She was born in Cape Bedford in 1937 to Ted and Nancy Bowen. Her totems are the Waandarr (White Cockatoo) on her father’s side and Ngamu Ngaagau (Dingo) on her mother’s side. Daisy speaks the Guugu Yimithirr language.
Daisy was only 5 years old when her family were removed from Cape Bedford and interned at Woorabinda Settlement (west of Rockhampton) during World War II. The Australian Government considered the Lutheran Missions in Cape York a threat to national security.
Life was hard in Woorabinda, and there were many hardships. However, Daisy and her family made the best of it.  Daisy has fond memories of her time at school and making friends.
“Every day, we would walk to school, and on the road, we would pass the same magpie sitting in a tree.  If we got too close, it would swoop us! So, we would run for our lives! Poor Dumbia got pecked many times on the head”.
Daisy is well known for her whimsical paintings about “Guuda” (dogs).
“My paintings are about my two pet dogs, 7-O and Granny-Boy, they are cute and friendly.”
Daisy paints her dingo totem to express her connection to her country and family. She depicts her daily life, including her experiences during the evacuation, as well as the hardship and loss endured by her community during the Second World War.
Daisy is a member of the Gamba Gamba group (senior women), a group whose artworks draw on traditional Guugu Yimmithirr Warra culture, 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 pass on to younger generations.
Daisy completed her Certificate in Visual Arts at TAFE. She loves participating in the art centre’s workshops, including natural dying on silk, lino prints, and textiles.
Daisy and the other Gamba Gamba group members love to laugh and recall “Old Days” stories.