Marcia Langton

Life and career

Marcia Langton was born in 1951 to Kathleen (née Waddy) and grew up in south-central Queensland and Brisbane as a descendant of the Yiman and Bidjara nations. Her father had no presence in her life. Her mother married Scots-born, ex-Korean War veteran Douglas Langton when Marcia was a year old.

She enrolled at the University of Queensland, becoming an activist for indigenous rights. Disillusioned with the conservative mainstream political reaction to these issues she then left Australia to travel, live and work in several countries including Papua New Guinea, Japan and North America. She returned to Australia and graduated in anthropology at the Australian National University in the 1980s. She then worked with several organisations dealing with indigenous social and cultural issues and land claims. These included the Australian Film Commission, the Central Land Council (where she was a land claims anthropologist), the Queensland government and, in the early 1990s, the Cape York Land Council. For example, as a member of the Northern Territory Aboriginal Issues Unit she worked for the 1989 Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody. Her report, "Too Much Sorry Business", raised serious concerns about alcohol consumption and the lack of government action to control it; "from an Aboriginal perspective and from the Aboriginal experience alcohol plays a primary role in both the reasons for detention and for the subsequent chances of deaths occurring". The conclusion was that alcohol supply needed limits. Almost 20 years later, she has supported the Northern Territory National Emergency Response which polices alcohol sales and consumption, among other issues.

In 1995 she moved full-time into university research and teaching. She spent five years as Ranger Professor of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies at Northern Territory University (now Charles Darwin University) in Darwin, Northern Territory, before moving to Melbourne.

Academic interests

Langton is known for her work in several academic fields, linked by a concern for indigenous rights, justice, and artistic expression. Langton conducts anthropological work to support land claims by Aboriginal peoples and their negotiations with mining companies and the state.

Her 2005 PhD in geography at Macquarie University applies phenomenological theory to the study of Aboriginal peoples of the eastern Cape York Peninsula.

Her international work concerns First Nation rights in Canada, conservation and environmental policies, and long-term support to the people of East Timor.

Langton supports contemporary Indigenous Australian young adults cultural self-expression.

She has contended that agreements between mining companies and Aboriginal communities typically favor local interests over the Australian government's. Moreover, she believes that the 2010 Resource Tax on mining in Australia requires restructuring to better uphold indigenous rights and enhance employment opportunities for Aboriginal people.

She is a frequent media commentator, and serves on various high-level committees on indigenous issues. These have included the Centre for Aboriginal Reconciliation, the directorship of the Centre for Indigenous Natural and Cultural Resource Management, Chair of the Indigenous Higher Education Advisory Council, and Chair of the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership, QLD. In May 2008, the Federal government appointed her to a committee looking into reform of the Australian Native Title process.

Awards

Some important works

Books

Articles

Film