Henrietta Marrie (née Fourmile) (born 1954) is an Australian

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

rights activist. She is an

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...

from the Yidinji tribe, directly descended from Ye-i-nie, an Aboriginal leader in the

Cairns region The Cairns Region is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Queensland, Australia, centred on the regional city of Cairns. It was established in 2008 by the amalgamation of the City of Cairns and the Shires of Douglas and Mulgrave. ...

. In 1905, the

Queensland Government The Queensland Government is the democratic administrative authority of the Australian state of Queensland. The Government of Queensland, a parliamentary constitutional monarchy was formed in 1859 as prescribed in its Constitution, as amended fr ...

awarded Ye-i-nie with a king plate in recognition of her local status as a significant Walubara Yidinji leader. She is an advocate for the rights of her own Gimuy Walubarra Yidinji families, as well as for the

cultural rights The cultural rights movement has provoked attention to protect the rights of groups of people, or their culture, in similar fashion to the manner in which the human rights movement has brought attention to the needs of individuals throughout t ...

indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

nationally and internationally. The ''

Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia ''The Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, society and culture'', edited by David Horton, is an encyclopaedia published by the Aboriginal Studies Press at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal ...

'' identifies Marrie as a notable Aboriginal Australian in an entry that includes:Bancroft, R (1994) "Fourmile, H" in Horton (General Editor) '' The Encyclopedia of Aboriginal Australia: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander History, Society, and Culture'' Aboriginal Studies Press. Canberra.

Fourmile has been involved in extensive research in the areas of Aboriginal cultural heritage and museums, the politics of Aboriginal heritage and the arts and recently the area of Aborigines and cultural tourism.

She has been a senior fellow at the

United Nations University The (UNU) is the think tank and academic arm of the United Nations. Headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, with diplomatic status as a UN institution, its mission is to help resolve global issues related to human development and welfare thro ...

and an Adjunct Associate Professor with the

Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining The Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining (CSRM) is a member of the Sustainable Minerals Institute at the University of Queensland. CSRM was established in 2001 as a research centre committed to improving the social performance of the glo ...

at the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

. She is currently Associate Professor, Office of Indigenous Engagement at the

Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

campus of the

Central Queensland University Central Queensland University (alternatively known as CQUniversity) is an Australian public university based in central Queensland. CQUniversity is the only Australian university with a campus presence in every mainland state. Its main campus ...

. In 2018, she was named as one of the

Queensland Greats The Queensland Greats Awards recognise outstanding Queenslanders for their years of dedication and contribution to the development of the state and their role in strengthening and shaping the community in Queensland, Australia. The awards are pr ...

Queensland Premier The premier of Queensland is the head of government in the Australian state of Queensland. By convention the premier is the leader of the party with a parliamentary majority in the unicameral Legislative Assembly of Queensland. The premier is ap ...

Annastacia Palaszczuk Annastacia Palaszczuk ( , Polish: Annastacia Pałaszczuk, ; born 25 July 1969) is an Australian politician who has been the 39th premier of Queensland since 2015 and the leader of the Queensland branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) since ...

in a ceremony at the

Queensland Art Gallery The Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) is an art museum located in South Bank, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The gallery is part of QAGOMA. It complements the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) building, situated only away. The Queensland Art Gallery ...

on 8 June 2018.

Country

Marrie's country within local Aboriginal tradition,GEDO EcoDesign Webpage '2006 Global EcoDesign Dialogues Speaker Profiles' Accessed 21 October 2008 to which she holds some property rights under Native Title law, is that country that was once wholly possessed, occupied, used and enjoyed by "King" Ye-i-nie and the Walubarra Yidinji families generally:

The area of the foreshore of the
City of Cairns The City of Cairns was a local government area centred on the Far North Queensland city of Cairns. Established in 1885, for most of its existence it consisted of approximately around Cairns itself, with much of the metropolitan area being loc ...
was traditionally known as Gimuy – after the Slippery Blue
Fig Tree ''Ficus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending int ...
. The traditional lands of the Gimuy Walubara Yidinji People extend south of the Barron River to Wrights Creek (south of
Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...
), west into the ranges behind Cairns, and east into
Trinity Inlet The Trinity Inlet is an oceanic inlet which serves as the port for the city of Cairns, Queensland, Australia. The city centre is on the western bank where the inlet meets the Coral Sea. Location and features The Trinity Inlet is located in the ...
, including Admiralty Island, to the adjacent waters of the outer
Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...
. The lands in the Cairns suburb of Woree, close to Admiralty Island and Trinity Inlet, were the principal traditional camping grounds of the Gimuy Walubara Yidinji people.

Biographical details

Marrie was born and raised in

Yarrabah, Queensland Yarrabah (traditionally ''Yagaljida'' in the Yidin language spoken by the indigenous Yidinji people is a coastal town and locality in the Aboriginal Shire of Yarrabah, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Yarrabah recorded a populatio ...

(an Aboriginal community approx 7 km south-east of

), the eldest daughter of Henry Fourmile (aka ''Queballum'' – cyclone), grandson to the Yidinji warrior Ye-i-nie (Aboriginal Peace Maker and "King" of

). She went to school in Yarrabah, and later studied teaching at the South Australian College of Advanced Education, where she first obtained a Diploma in Teaching. Later, after the College had been transformed into the

University of South Australia The University of South Australia (UniSA) is a public research university in the Australian state of South Australia. It is a founding member of the Australian Technology Network of universities, and is the largest university in South Australi ...

, she obtained a Graduate Diploma of Arts (Indigenous Studies). By 1988 Marrie was lecturing at

Griffith University Griffith University is a public research university in South East Queensland on the east coast of Australia. Formally founded in 1971, Griffith opened its doors in 1975, introducing Australia's first degrees in environmental science and Asian s ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

, and in 1991 had managed to return to Cairns (Gimuy) region, where she first assisted co-ordinate the Cairns College of

Technical and Further Education Technical and further education or simply TAFE (), is the common name in English-speaking countries in Oceania for vocational education, as a subset of tertiary education. TAFE institutions provide a wide range of predominantly vocational cours ...

's Aboriginal ranger training program, then by 1994, had become the Cairns Coordinator of a new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Participation, Research and Development Centre in

James Cook University James Cook University (JCU) is a public university in North Queensland, Australia. The second oldest university in Queensland, JCU is a teaching and research institution. The university's main campuses are located in the tropical cities of Cairn ...

. From Cairns, Marrie undertook a Masters in Environmental and Local Government Law (through

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a public research university based in Sydney, Australia, in the suburb of Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the metropolitan area of S ...

). Her interests and concerns moved to

biocultural diversity Biocultural diversity is defined by Luisa Maffi, co-founder and director of Terralingua, as "the diversity of life in all its manifestations: biological, cultural, and linguistic — which are interrelated (and possibly coevolved) within a comple ...

indigenous intellectual property Indigenous intellectual property is a term used in national and international forums to describe intellectual property that is "collectively owned" by various Indigenous peoples, and by extension, their legal rights to protect specific such prop ...

, and

traditional ecological knowledge Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) describes indigenous and other traditional knowledge of local resources. As a field of study in Northern American anthropology, TEK refers to "a cumulative body of knowledge, belief, and practice, evolving by ...

,Christensfund's Program Officer Biographies page
Accessed 6 December 2008 and as such, by 1997, she had moved on and taken up a position with the United Nations Secretariat for the

Convention on Biological Diversity The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), known informally as the Biodiversity Convention, is a multilateral treaty. The Convention has three main goals: the conservation of biological diversity (or biodiversity); the sustainable use of its ...

, where she was the first

to be appointed to a full-time professional position in a United Nations agency. Since 2003, Marrie moved her focus back towards Cairns, first working as the Christensenfund's North Australian Program Officer assisting that philanthropic organisation distribute grants and funds to help promote, sustain, and encourage indigenous biocultural diversity across Australia's north (including the Cairns region), and now working as an associate professor at the Central Queensland University's Cairns campus.

Awards and honours

* Member of the Order of Australia (General Division): named a member of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

Australia Day Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Observed annually on 26 January, it marks the 1788 landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove and raising of the Union Flag by Arthur Phillip following days of exploration of Port Ja ...

, 26 January 2018, for her significant service to the community as an advocate for indigenous cultural heritage and intellectual property rights, and to education, with the Queensland Governor

Paul de Jersey Paul de Jersey, (born 21 September 1948) is an Australian jurist who served as the 26th governor of Queensland, in office from 29 July 2014 to 1 November 2021. He was Chief Justice of Queensland from 1998 to 2014. Education De Jersey was edu ...

officially presenting the honor to her at a ceremony held on 30 April 2018Central Queensland University (2018) "CQ UNIVERSITY ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OFFICIALLY PRESENTED WITH ORDER OF AUSTRALIA (AM
Central Queensland University Media
2 May 2018

Publications

* * * * * * * * * (1992) 1(56) Aboriginal Law Bulletin 3. * * * * *
Fourmile, Henrietta (1996) "Making Things Work: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Involvement in BioRegional Planning" Biodiversity Series Paper No. 10. Department of Environment, Sport & Territories
Accessed 18 August 2017

References

External links

Henrietta Marrie's 'Deadly Story', Queensland Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships
Accessed 12 June 2018
Aboriginal Intellectual Property Rights on Medicinal Plants with Henrietta Marrie - 3CR Earth Matters January 2017
Accessed 16 December 2018 {{DEFAULTSORT:Marrie, Henrietta Indigenous Australian writers Australian indigenous rights activists Women human rights activists Living people 1954 births Queensland Greats Central Queensland University faculty