2025 ANU Archives Annual Lecture

Professor Croft will draw on her engagement with archives and understanding of personal and family history in her story of the long journeys of ‘Handsome’ Joe Croft – the sobriquet shared by her grandfather and father. The place of archives held in the Noel Butlin Archives Centre at ANU from Victoria River Downs, one of Australia’s largest pastoral stations in the early 20th century plays a significant part in this ongoing story.

Professor Brenda L Croft, School of Art and Design, College of Arts and Social Sciences, ANU.

Professor Croft is from the Gurindji/Malngin/Mudburra Peoples from the Victoria River region of the Northern Territory of Australia, and has Anglo-Australian/ Chinese/German/Irish/Scottish heritage.

Brenda is Professor of Indigenous Art History and Curatorship; and co-team leader of ANU Indigenous Health and Wellbeing Grand Challenge, ‘Murrudha: Sovereign Walks – tracking cultural actions through art, Country, language and music’. Brenda’s cross-disciplinary creative-led research encompasses Critical Indigenous Collaborative, Performative, Autoethnography and Storywork methodologies and theories.

Brenda has a long-standing engagement with her patrilineal family and community members, both on traditional homelands and also as part of dispossessed, Gurindji-affiliated communities. Her doctoral research project Still in my mind: Gurindji location, experience and visuality, a collaborative exhibition in partnership with Karungkarni Art & Culture Aboriginal Corporation, UNSW Galleries, UNSW Art & Design and UQ Art Museum, toured nationally from 2017 – 2022, and she was awarded a UNSW Dean’s Award for Outstanding PhD Thesis in 2022.

Brenda's work is represented in major public collections in Australia and overseas and private collections. In addition to working with the ANU she is an artist of four decades standing, exhibited in major exhibitions and cultural events in Australia and overseas, represented by Niagara Galleries, Melbourne. Brenda has participated and continues to participate on numerous advisory boards and committees. In 2024 Brenda was the Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser Visiting Chair of Australian Studies, Harvard University, USA.