Barbara McGrady

Barbara McGrady was born in Mungindi, New South Wales.[2] McGrady is a Gamilaraay woman, who started taking photos of her family and surroundings as a teenager with a camera her mother bought her.[1] Her fascination with photo journalism was sparked by black and white photographs of black sports men and women in magazines like Time Magazine and Life Magazine, the National Geographic, Esquire and Readers Digest.[1]

McGrady has been photographing political and social events of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and families of the Redfern, Surry Hills and Waterloo communities for 30 years from her perspective as a Gamilaraay woman. McGrady comes from the north-west of NSW and Southern Queensland.[3]

McGrady is a survivor who has lived in two worlds, black and white. Her aunts were removed from the family and sent to Cootamundra Girls Home while the men were sent to work as indentured labourers.[2]

McGrady specialises in recording indigenous sporting figures and events. Among the famous people McGrady has photographed are prominent activist for Australia's First Nations People, Gary Foley, a human rights activist, and historian at the University of Victoria. According to Foley, McGrady is a "true historian" because she documents aboriginal experience.[4]

Her works include iconic images of Adam Goodes with Louis Jetta and Lance (Buddy) Franklin and the indigenous round football trophy,[2] world champion Aboriginal boxer Anthony "Choc" Mundine, the Koori Knockout Carnival (one of the biggest Indigenous gatherings in Australia) and the Sista Girls of the Sydney Mardi Gras.[3]

As part of the 2020 Biennale of Sydney, McGrady's work was hung in the NSW Art Gallery. Her 2013 image of TJ Hickey's family was hung in the NSW Gallery's Entrance Court. However the Biennale was cancelled and the Gallery closed in line with the NSW government's COVID19 social distancing regulations.[5]

• 2013 Head On Festival; Visions in Black and White – Images from Indigenous Australia Redfern Community Centre, Sydney
• 2014 Head On Photographic Exhibition: McGrady held a one-woman exhibition of her work at The Rocks Discovery Museum 15 May to 20 July 2014
• 2017 Australian Centre of Photography, ACP's Project Space Gallery, 3 November – 9 December 2017 – Curated by Sandy Evans. Complemented by NITV & ACP Online Resource[3]
• 2018 30 July: Inner City NAIDOC – Deadly Women of Redfern by Aunty Barbara McGrady[6]
• 2020 Sydney Biennale. NSW Art Gallery[5]
• 2020 Campbelltown Arts Centre (awaiting information)[7]
• 2020, 20 May – Artist Talk with John Janson Moore[8]

• 2014 The Anthony Mundine Courage Award as part of the inaugural National Indigenous Human Rights Award.[8]

• Hogben, Lisa (29 January 2018). "Breaking Good: Barbara McGrady - our first Aboriginal female photojournalist". Capture magazine. Retrieved 21 April 2020.