[2][3] In 2004, President Thabo Mbeki awarded her the Order of Ikhamanga in Silver[4] – which is the highest honor given to those considered a "national treasure".
[7][8] In September 2018, Sebidi was honoured with one of the first solo presentations at the Norval Foundation in Cape Town – a retrospective entitled Batlhaping Ba Re.
She is often associated with the realist and quasi-expressionist schools, with her vivid paintings of life in both rural and urban South Africa and similarly striking clay sculptures.
Sebidi's name, "Mmakgabo", which means "keeper of the flame", refers to her grandmother's work ethic and belief in vocational labor's role in creating community.
As was typical of children born to migrant labourers, Helen was raised in the country side by her grandmother who taught her mural painting and pyroengraving of calabashes.
[15] In 1980, Sebidi furthered her training by spending eighteen months at the Katlehong Art Centre in the east of Johannesburg.
Her work was part of the group exhibition "Bild/konst i södra Afrika (Art/Images in Southern Africa)"[16] which was shown at the Culture House in Stockholm from 19 May to 19 September 1989 and toured the Nordic countries until May 1990.
Miracle (1987) and Tears of Africa (1988) were two of her seminal works from this era, both in mixed-media charcoal and depicting "contorted, cramped figures with distorted or multiplied features and faces sometimes meeting at right angles".