D Harding’s approach to material and process honours their Bidjara, Ghungalu and Garingbal Country around the Carnarvon Ranges (Kooramindanjie) in Central Queensland. Their ongoing research and connection to Carnarvon Gorge has informed many of their works, which respond to ancient artistic and cultural practices while examining colonial and settlement histories through the lens of family experience.

Woori red 2024 is an installation of woollen felt blankets, saturated with a mixture of gum acacia and earth pigments collected in a shared process with family members from two generations on a journey across Country. Embedded into the fabric by Harding with ‘Woori’ or Woorabinda red, from Ghungalu territory in Central Queensland, the blankets embody Country and its stories. The variegated hues, rigid texture and irregular shape of the blankets evoke hides or pelts of animal skin. Hand-felted by Harding in homage to ancestral possum-skin cloaks, the blankets hold a powerful presence, speaking to multiple layers of complicated histories and identities.