Featuring Artists: Goompi Ugerabah, Jorna Newberry, and The Ken Sisters; Tjunkara Ken, Freda Brady and Tanda Brady, as well as Maringka Tunkin, Sandra Ken and Yaritji Young.
As NAIDOC Week is celebrated across Australia from 7–14 July 2025, we at Gallery One on the Gold Coast are proud to join the national recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, culture and achievements. This year’s theme, “Keep the Fire Burning! Blak, Loud & Proud,” is a call to amplify Indigenous voices and honour the strength, resilience, and creativity of First Nations people.
At Gallery One, we are honoured to represent and showcase the extraordinary work of Aboriginal artists who continue to shape and preserve culture through contemporary art. This NAIDOC Week, we highlight three powerful voices in our stable: Goompi Ugerabah, Jorna Newberry, and The Ken Sisters.
Goompi: Ancient Storylines in Contemporary Flow
Goompi Ugerabah, a proud Aboriginal artist of the Yugambeh language group, translates the dreaming and the land into rich, flowing compositions. His art is both a tribute to his ancestors and an invitation for all to connect with Country. Using natural tones and a grounded palette, Goompi’s paintings explore themes of water, family, culture, and sacred stories. His work is a reminder that the oldest continuing culture on earth is also a living, evolving one—rooted in the past but always flowing forward.
We are looking forward to exhibiting new work by Goompi this coming September 2025.
Jorna: Feminine Spirit and Cultural Legacy
Jorna Newberry, a Pitjantjatjara artist from Western Desert Country, brings bold colour and sweeping movements to canvas, drawing from deep familial connections and Dreamtime stories passed down through generations. Her works often depict sacred women’s stories and the natural rhythms of the desert. A niece of renowned artist Tommy Watson, Jorna has forged her own distinct voice—one that vibrates with the power of ancestral energy and feminine strength. Her work is a visual testament to storytelling as survival.
We have and continue to be deeply saddened by Jorna’s passing in February this year. Her paintings are so special and unique.
The Ken Sisters: A Collaborative Cultural Force
The Ken Sisters; Tjunkara Ken, Freda Brady and Tanda Brady, as well as Maringka Tunkin, Sandra Ken and Yaritji Young.
The Ken Sisters Collaborative (Tjunpi Desert Weavers and award-winning painters) are Anangu women from the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in Central Australia. Known for their collective painting practice, the Ken Sisters paint individually in their own styles and also as one tellign the ‘Seven Sistsers Stories’—layering stories, symbols, and tradition in a shared creative rhythm. Their canvases are not only beautiful but deeply ceremonial, often portraying Tjukurpa (Dreaming) narratives that connect people, land, and spirit. Their internationally acclaimed work is a symbol of kinship, resilience, and shared cultural responsibility.
NAIDOC Week Matters to Us
Gallery One is committed to being a platform for diverse voices in contemporary Australian art. NAIDOC Week offers an opportunity not only to admire the beauty of Aboriginal art but to listen, learn, and stand in solidarity with First Nations communities. Through the works of Goompi, Jorna, and the Ken Sisters, we honour the continuation of culture and the strength of story that lives on every canvas.