Brenda L Croft is from the Gurindji/Malngin/Mudburra peoples from the Victorian River region of the Northern Territory of Australia, and Anglo-Australian/German/Irish/Chinese heritage. She has been a key participant in the Australian First Nations and broader contemporary arts and cultural sectors as a multi-disciplinary creative practitioner—artist, arts administrator, consultant, curator, educator and researcher—since the mid-1980s. Brenda is a Professor of Indigenous Art History and Curatorship, Australian National University. In 2023—2024 Brenda will be Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
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As Brenda L Croft shows, a picture really does paint a thousand words
A photograph taken in 1995 is an incredible snapshot of talent, featuring seven First Nations artists who are now crucial figures in Australian art, alongside a very newly elected New South Wales premier, Bob Carr. Why was this picture taken? And what can it tell us now? Brenda L Croft reflects.