Marcia Langton

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Marcia Langton

Marcia Langton holds the Foundation Chair in Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne, Australia. The program she heads is based in the University's Faculty of Medicine (Faculty of Arts, until 1/1/2007).

She is one of Australia's leading Aboriginal scholars. She was born in 1951 and grew up in Queensland, as a descendant of the Yiman nation. An activist in Queensland, she left Australia to live and work in several countries before returning to work with several organisations dealing with social and cultural issues and land claims. These included the Australian Film Commission, and later the Cape York Land Council and Queensland government in the 1990s. She trained in Anthropology at the Australian National University in the 1980s, and a more recent PhD applies anthropological and phenomenological theory to the study of Aboriginal peoples of the eastern Cape York Peninsula.

In the 1990s she moved full-time into university research and teaching. She spent five years as Ranger Professor of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies at the University of the Northern Territory (now Charles Darwin University) in Darwin, before moving to Melbourne in 2000. She 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. She has argued, controversially, that settlement with mining companies on Aboriginal land is often more beneficial to local interests than it has been with the Australian government. The Yachad Accelerated Learning Project applies techniques developed in Israel to Indigenous education in schools. Her international work concerns First Nation rights in Canada, conservation and environmental policies, and long-term support to the people of East Timor.

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, QLD.

[edit] Awards

Order of Australia, 1993.

Neville Bonner Award for Indigenous Teacher of the Year, 2002. (Jointly with Larissa Behrendt)

Fellow, Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, elected 2001.

Australia's top 100 Intellectuals ([1] Sydney Morning Herald 2005)

[edit] Major works

Langton, M., Palmer, L., Mazel, O., K. Shain & M.Tehan (eds). 2006. Settling with Indigenous Peoples: Modern Treaty and Agreement Making. Annandale, NSW: Federation Press.

Langton, M. & M. Nakata (eds). 2005. Australian Indigenous Knowledge and Libraries. Canberra: Australian Academic and Research Libraries.

Langton, M. 2005. An Aboriginal ontology of being and place: the performance of Aboriginal property relations in the Princess Charlotte Bay area of eastern Cape York Peninsula, Australia. Unpub. PhD thesis, Human Geography/Anthropology. Sydney: Macquarie University.

Langton, M., M. Tehan, L.R. Palmer & K. Shain (eds). 2004. Honour among nations? Treaties and agreements with Indigenous peoples. Melbourne: Melbourne University Publishing. (Choice List of Outstanding Academic Titles 2006, American Libraries Association Choice_(magazine))

Langton, M. 1998. Burning Questions: emerging environmental issues for Indigenous peoples in northern Australia. Northern Territory University. 1.

Langton M. & W. Jonas. 1994. The Little Red, Yellow and Black (and Green and Blue and White) Book: a short guide to Indigenous Australia. Canberra: AIATSIS.

Langton, M. 1994. Valuing cultures: recognising indigenous cultures as a valued part of Australian heritage. Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. Canberra : Australian Govt. Pub. Service.

Langton, M. 1993. Well, I heard it on the radio and I saw it on the television: an essay for the Australian Film Commission on the politics and aesthetics of filmmaking by and about Aboriginal people and things. Sydney: Australian Film Commission.

Langton, M. & N. Peterson (eds). 1983. Aborigines, Land & Land Rights. Valuing Cultures: recognising Indigenous cultures as a valued part of Australian heritage. Canberra: AGPS.

Langton, M. 1983. After the tent embassy : images of Aboriginal history in black and white photographs Sydney: Valadon Publishing.

Films include: Jardiwarnpa: a Warlpiri fire (with Ned Lander & Rachel Perkins); Night Cries: a rural tragedy (with Tracey Moffatt & Penny McDonald) & Blood brothers.