Research Background: Carol McGregor’s Skin Country (2018) is an oversized possum skin cloak intertwined with burnt and painted illustrations using ochres and charcoal. Depicting an integrated map of native plants used across Greater Brisbane Aboriginal communities each skin has been intricately hand sewn together to create a canvas of the Brisbane River and its journey to the mountains, bay, and coastlines. The immersive scale of the cloak emphasises the wide-spread extent of local flora utilised by Aboriginal people. Inspired by Bruce Pascoe’s significant book Dark Emu: Black Seeds: agriculture or accident? (2014) which reveals a long history of Aboriginal agriculture previously omitted from Australian history, Skin Country also celebrates the power of traditional wisdom, strong living culture, and the vitality of the land.

Research Contribution: Throughout the development of Skin Country, McGregor worked with Traditional Owners, Brisbane Elders, and community members to collectively share stories and memories of plant uses and histories. Encompassing intimate reflection of knowledge systems relating to the natural environment and skills of creation. Following Indigenous protocols integral to McGregor’s practice, she shares the diverse traditional applications of plants by Aboriginal people and bringing this knowledge into discussion through cloak making.

Research Significance: Skin Country was commission by the Institute of Modern Art with the support of the Australia Council of the Arts and exhibited in The Commute, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2018 with visiting Indigenous curator Freja Carmichael (Quandamooka). Re-exhibited in transits and returns, Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada, 2019 and Art of the Skins: un-silencing and remembering, Griffith University, 2019. In 2020 was acquired by Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGoMA), Brisbane.