First People Then And Now: Marji Hill – Author And Artist

First People Then And Now: Marji

Hill – Author And Artist

 

Marji Hill – Author & Artist

All of her professional life, Marji Hill has been writing books to promote understanding between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians. She has fostered the spirit of Reconciliation in all her work since she was Research Fellow in Education at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) in Canberra .

Black Australia

After starting at AIATSIS in 1976 Marji, together with her late partner, Alex Barlow, produced more than sixty books on all aspects of Aboriginal Australia including the critical, annotated bibliography Black Australia.

In 1989 Marji was the Project Co-ordinator and one of the researchers and writers of Australian Aboriginal Culture the official Australian Government publication on Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders.

Six Australian Battlefields

In 1988 her work of non-fiction Six Australian Battlefields, which she co-authored with Al Grassby, was published by Angus and Robertson. A decade later it was re-published by Allen & Unwin as a paperback edition.

The 9 volume encyclopaedia Macmillan Encyclopaedia of Australia’s Aboriginal Peoples was published in 2000 and in 2009 she published The Apology: Saying Sorry To The Stolen Generations.

Marji has a Master of Arts specialising in Anthropology from the Australian National University.

Professional artist

She is a professional artist. One of her large oil paintings was included in the 2004-2005 Ballarat Fine Art Gallery Travelling Exhibition Eureka Revisited: the Contest of Memories. This exhibition travelled to Melbourne, Canberra and Ballarat – part of the 150 year celebration of the Eureka Stockade.

Jupiter Mosman

 

Another of her paintings hangs in the foyer of Jupiter’s Casino in Townsville while her portrait of Jupiter Mosman hangs in the World Centre at Charters Towers in North Queensland. These two paintings celebrate the story of Aboriginal boy, Jupiter Mosman who discovered gold at Charters Towers in 1871.

Marji’s paintings are held in many private collections in Australia and overseas. She is represented in collections at Ballarat Fine Art Gallery and the Catholic University.

As part of her professional work, Marji has travelled extensively throughout Aboriginal Australia and the Torres Strait.

Early Australian pioneer

 

Her maternal grandmother, Lucy Hauenschild, was an early Australian pioneer travelling as a small child with her family by wagon train from Melbourne  to the Gulf Country in North Queensland.

Her early years were spent with Aboriginal people around her and after leaving Croydon in the early 1900s she eventually in the early 1900s went to live, and marry on Thursday Island in the Torres Strait.

While Marji herself is not Indigenous she does have Aboriginal blood relatives living in Western Australia.

Marji lives on the Gold Coast in Queensland and pursues her interests of writing, painting and internet marketing.