SATURDAY 23 MAY, 2PM
Join co-curator Dr. Eugenia Flynn in conversation with Prof. Gary Foley and Wayne Ludbey for a discussion centred on the practice of Gomeroi/Gamilaraay Murri photojournalist Barbara McGrady (Aunty Barb).
Drawing on their long-standing connections to her work, the panel will reflect on what it means to photograph from within community, and how relationships, trust, and accountability shape the image-making process. The conversation will move across her career, from early moments behind the camera to her presence across key cultural and sporting events.
Together, they will offer insight into Aunty Barb’s distinct way of seeing, the broader conditions of the field she has worked within, and the impact of a practice built not just on documenting moments, but on being part of them.
PANELLIST BIOS
Prof. Gary Foley is a Gumbainggir activist, academic, actor and founding figure in key Aboriginal organisations. A central voice in movements such as the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, he helped establish the Redfern Aboriginal Legal Service, Victorian Aboriginal Health Service, and National Black Theatre.
Foley has held leadership roles across community-controlled organisations and contributed to national advocacy, including the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. An accomplished historian, he earned a PhD from the University of Melbourne (2012) and is Professor at Victoria University, where he directs the Aboriginal History Archive—one of Australia’s most significant collections on Aboriginal resistance and political history.
Across decades of activism and cultural work, Foley has moved alongside Aunty Barb, a longtime colleague and friend whose work he has publicly championed—recognising her as a vital community photographer and an essential recorder of First Nations histories from a grassroots perspective.
///\\\///\\\///\\\
Dr. Eugenia Flynn is a writer, creative, academic and community organiser. As an Aboriginal (Larrakia and Tiwi), Chinese Malaysian and Muslim woman, Eugenia works with her multiple communities through creative arts and community engaged practice.
Eugenia’s scholarly work sits within the disciplines of creative writing and literary studies while maintaining an interdisciplinary focus in the fields of critical Indigenous studies, critical race and whiteness studies, feminist theory, and visual art and curatorial practice. Eugenia’s creative practice explores narratives of truth-telling, interwoven with explorations of race and gender.
Eugenia is currently Senior Lecturer (Creative Writing and Indigenous Literatures) at Monash University’s School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics. She is Editor and Publisher of Sovereign Texts: Journal of First Peoples Literature.
///\\\///\\\///\\\
Wayne Ludbey is a renowned Australian photojournalist, best known for capturing one of the most significant images in the nation’s sporting and political history: AFL legend Nicky Winmar pointing to his skin in 1993 in a powerful assertion of Black pride and a direct stand against racial abuse.
Across a 40-year career, he has worked across sport, news, and major cultural events, guided by a documentary approach that moves fluidly between the sporting arena and broader public life. Regarded as one of Australia’s leading sports photographers, Ludbey’s practice is defined by an instinct for moments that carry meaning beyond the game.
This is a free public program event as part of We Should Be Seen, We Should Be Heard: The Photography of Aunty Barbara McGrady.
Read more about the exhibition here →