2023 Indigenous Alumna of the Year: Professor Marcia Langton AO FASSA FTSE

Professor Marcia Langton (BA ’84, HonLittD ’19) is recipient of the ANU Indigenous Alumna of the Year, for her pivotal role in advancing Indigenous rights in Australia – most recently, advocating for the establishment of a constitutionally enshrined Voice to Parliament.

 

Professor Marcia Langton (BA ’84, HonLittD ’19) is recipient of the 2023 ANU Indigenous Alumna of the Year award, for her pivotal role in advancing Indigenous rights in Australia – most recently, advocating for the establishment of a constitutionally enshrined Voice to Parliament.

Professor Langton is an anthropologist, geographer and academic, and descendant of the Yiman and Bidjara nations of Queensland. She began her advocacy career as the General Secretary of the Federal Council for Advancement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People in 1977.

 

After studying at the Australian National University in the 1980s and establishing the ANU Indigenous Alumni Network as an Inaugural Patron, she spent five years as an anthropologist with the Central Land Council in Alice Springs. From 1989 to 1992 she worked on the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and was a key contributor to the passage of the Native Title Act in 1993.

 

Since 2000 she has held the Foundation Chair of Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne, where in 2017 she was appointed as the first Associate Provost at the University of Melbourne. Her role in the Empowered Communities project under contract to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and as a member of the Expert Panel on Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians are evidence of Professor Langton's academic reputation, policy commitment and impact, alongside her role as a prominent public intellectual.

 

Professor Langton has published widely on Aboriginal land tenure, agreement-making, art and film in a diverse range of publications. Her most recent book, Law: The Way of the Ancestors, co-authored with Professor Aaron Corn, was published in 2023.

 

Professor Langton's involvement in the Voice to Parliament showcases her tireless efforts to empower Indigenous communities and ensure their voices are heard at the highest levels of decision-making.