Inspired by warrior and matriarch Barangaroo, Gurindji, Malngin and Mudburra multidisciplinary artist Brenda L. Croft wants her images of powerful contemporary Indigenous women to reclaim ownership of Warrane (Sydney) harbour and embody its namesake.

The collection of 60 large-scale black and white portraits titled Naabami (thou shall/will see): Barangaroo (army of me) is poised to dot the area's foreshore from January 5 as part of Sydney Festival.

During Sydney's colonial period, Barangaroo, a Cammerayagal woman from the northern side of Port Jackson, was a fisherwoman and symbol of resistance for her people.

It's this kind of resilience Ms Croft wants to capture in the faces of those set to be a part of the major public artwork, who she described as collaborators.

Shot primarily since 2019 the photos represent more than three decades of discussions with those sitting, gazing inward to contemplate themselves and stories of women in their own lives.

Among those to be displayed is Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney.

"I really wanted to claim back the name Barangaroo," Ms Croft said.

"It felt like Barangaroo, the woman was getting lost in the mix and so I wanted to do something that really placed her front and centre as an inspirational warrior, which I consider her to be, and looking into the research records, and seeing what a feisty individual she was noted as, and also to bring into focus that doesn't matter what you build on top of country, it's still First Nations country and land.

"(And) to bring into focus First Nations women, who are people who have inspired me, some people I hadn't worked with previously, but I felt kind of personified the spirit of Barangaroo."

The symbolism stretches past depiction into materials and practice.

Printed onto tin using wet plate collodion process the photos are then installed onto sandstone blocks - taken from Sydney's old colonial buildings original cut from traditional land.

"(It's) kind of harking back to that 19th century," Ms Croft said.

"The way First Nations peoples were portrayed back then as very much a kind of racialised representation.

"Those photographs from the 19th century of our people were very much placed in us on the bottom of the racial hierarchy, categorization and those ideas of eugenics that Aboriginal people can at the bottom of the suppose that ladder of humanity and the subverting that using that technique, which is a really powerful representational technique."

In a new narrative for First Nations women and people, Ms Croft said "we are all kind of foot soldiers"

Naabami: Barangaroo is commissioned by Lendlease and the NSW Government $40 million Public Art and Cultural Development Contribution.

Ms Croft's work will also display in Dyin Nura (Women's Place) at Old Government House in Parramatta for the Sydney Festival in addition to the Art Gallery of NSW in 2023.