Barkandji country Acclaimed artist Badger Bates, a Barkandji elder, wrote that Harmon’s project is ‘beautiful and frightening at the same time’. He continued: ‘We are going through one of our biggest struggles since white occupation of this country now, to get recognition of our cultural right to manage the waters, particularly of the Barka (Darling) and its floodplains, billabongs and lakes, so we can sustain our culture and our ecosystems. The Barka has been pumped dry by irrigators upstream more often than not over the last six years, and this is getting worse every day.’

Photograph: Paul Harmon