John Harding is a descendant of the KuKu Yalanji tribe and the Mer people. He was co-founder of the Ilbijerri Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Theatre Co-op in Melbourne. The first play produced by the Co-op was Harding's Up The Road, which was subsequently performed at the Belvoir Street Theatre, and then toured nationally.
Harding has been an actor, and has worked in Aboriginal affairs and education. He has been writing poetry since the age of 14, and has written and directed drama for theatre, radio and television. He was assistant Director for the 1989 National Black Playwrights' Conference and Artistic Director of the 1996 Nambundah Festival. His television credits include Lift Off and Blackout, the Aboriginal sitcom The Masters and the SBS Indigenous current affairs program, ICAM. In 2006 Hardy won for a DEADLY Award, Outstanding Achievement in Literature, for his book The Dirty Mile, a History of Indigenous Fitzroy (2006).
