Daisy Hamlot

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), 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 WW2. 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 recently discovered a love of painting. She 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 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”.