Marcia Langton

is an Aboriginal writer, a descendant of the Yiman people of Queensland. She is professor of Australian Indigenous studies at the University of Melbourne.

By this author


Comment May 03, 2025

Dutton, Advance and the Welcome to Country

“Tapping into the historical racism that began with the British invasion has proved easier for the race-baiters than even I could imagine. Building on their success in opposing the Voice referendum, the ‘No’ campaign apparatchiks have …”

Comment March 22, 2025

The Yunupingu case and native title

This month’s High Court ruling on Indigenous property rights confirms the full humanity of First Nations people.

Comment January 25, 2025

Dutton’s deliberate Australia Day cruelty

“It’s January in Australia and so the annual Australia Day political circus has rolled into town. It started much earlier this year, with Peter Dutton and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price working to grab some headlines before the upcoming election. Their …”

Comment August 24, 2024

A way forward after the Voice

“This new policy pivot to economic development, while it must be implemented in a disputatious political environment, draws attention to the universal aspiration for Indigenous economic parity in a way that no other national Indigenous affairs policy has …”

Comment January 27, 2024

The facts about redneck economic theory

“Refusing to be defeated by the relentless racism, however, Indigenous entrepreneurs and community leaders running non-profit corporations have succeeded in establishing businesses with positive outcomes that far exceed those of the many failed bureaucratic …”

News October 14, 2023

Marcia Langton: ‘Whatever the outcome, reconciliation is dead’

The referendum campaign has cemented racism into the body politic, and the ‘baseless’ rejection of ‘Yes’ will create a bleak future for Australia and those who stood with First Nations people.

Comment January 07, 2023

Fighting for a Voice

“It is eight months since Prime Minister Anthony Albanese used his victory speech to promise his government would implement in full the Uluru Statement from the Heart. What has transpired since is less the dialogue he hoped for and more two separate monologues.”

Comment September 19, 2020

The destruction of the Juukan Gorge caves

“Here is a fact about life in Australia in 2020: the material and geographical manifestations of Aboriginal cultures developed over more than 65,000 years are being rapidly destroyed by mining companies, urban settlement, road and infrastructure development, …”

Comment August 25, 2018

The folly of Jacinta Price

“Jacinta Price is useful to politicians. She legitimises racist views by speaking them against her own people. When she walks through Alice Springs and Tennant Creek with the prime minister, she waves a flag for the increasingly normal brand of race politics …”

Comment April 14, 2018

Royal commission into police needed

“While crime rates are declining in Victoria, Dutton made claims about lack of deterrence of crime in Victoria. In a radio interview he said Victorians were ‘bemused’ when they looked at ‘the jokes of sentences being handed down’ due to ‘political …”

Comment July 01, 2017

Adani, native title and risky strategies

“Fortunately, common sense has prevailed with the McGlade amendments passed in the senate. As a result, one or a few native title applicants are now not able to disqualify a lawful agreement settled by the majority of the members of their group by playing …”

Visual Art June 02, 2017

Tracey Moffatt at the 2017 Venice Biennale

While the photography in Tracey Moffatt’s exhibition at the Venice Biennale bears touches of the knowing melodrama of her early work, her film work comes with a disaffected Hollywood air.

Comment June 11, 2016

The silence on Indigenous issues in the 2016 election

“The media coverage of Indigenous issues spins on a few old shibboleths. To talk about anything else is too difficult, too serious. It doesn’t keep First Australians where they are supposed to be; doesn’t use the same old stories to keep us in our …”

Comment March 22, 2014

Keeping Andrew Bolt in business

“Andrew Bolt will be free to continue to publish untrue statements, unless those offended have the money to pursue a defamation case.”