Melbourne Art Fair (MAF) Beyond 2026

Naabámi (thou shall/will see): Barangaroo (army of me), 2023

Brenda L. Croft’s expansive wall-based installation from her acclaimed series Naabámi (thou shall/will see): Barangaroo (army of me) pays tribute to Barangaroo, the Cammeraygal woman known for her unwavering stance as an unceded sovereign First Nations woman during early settler-colonial contact.

The series features portraits created using tintypes — a photographic process introduced in Australia in the 1870s, historically used to document Australian First Nations Peoples through a colonial, ethnographic lens. In Croft’s work, contemporary First Nations women and girls are represented via tintype, then re/presented at a monumental scale. This strategic use of a medium once employed to marginalise and control reclaims its power. Through Croft’s collaborative lens-based practice, her subjects command space and presence, asserting histories that demands recognition.

Naabámi (thou shall/will see): Barangaroo (army of me) was first presented at Sydney Festival 2023, along the Barangaroo waterfront and at Old Government House, Parramatta. Iterations were also exhibited in The National 4 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2023; the Museum of Sydney, Museums of Heritage NSW, 2023; the Australian Embassy, Washington DC, USA, 2024-25; and in ON COUNTRY: Photography from Australia at Les Rencontres, Arles, France, 2025.

Brenda L. Croft is represented by Niagara Galleries (Naarm/Melbourne).

https://melbourneartfair.com.au/beyond-2026/

https://melbourneartfair.com.au/read-brenda-l-croft-on-honouring-barangaroos-legacy-inverting-tintypes-by-acknowledging-agency-and-more/

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Brenda L. Croft

Melbourne Art Fair (MAF) Beyond 2026

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