Elizabeth 'Queenie' Giblet

Elizabeth 'Queenie' Giblet (born 1940) is a senior Umpila woman who was born at the 'Old Site', the original mission station at Lockhart River before WWII. Her paintings often depict her stories of weaving and body painting associated with dance performed by members of the Lockhart River community at the Laura Dance Festival that occurs every two years.

Her painting 'Pa'anamu (headbands) for Laura Festival' 2008 was acquired in 2009 by the National Gallery of Australia as part of its Emerging Elders exhibition. Chantelle Woods, Assistant Curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art (NGA) in an excerpt from artonview, issue 59, Spring writes 'Her painting 'Pa'anamu (headbands) for Laura Festival' 2008 assigns life and movement to traditional practices; she adopts a monochromatic colour scheme, allowing the movement created by the design to do the talking. The repetition is comparable to the intricate weaving techniques she uses for making dancewear - grass headbands, skirts and armbands-for community ceremonies. Giblet is the head dancewear weaver and is the only weaver who makes the mission-style pandanus baskets, which consist of a very different stitch to the region's traditional puunya grass baskets. In 'Pa'anamu (headbands) for Laura Festival', the vibration of the stomping feet can almost be felt through the energetic zigzags covering Giblet's canvas; each brushstroke informed by a lifetime of weaving'.