Marlene Cummins is a jazz blues singer, saxophonist, songwriter, artist, Aboriginal Australian activist, broadcaster, dancer, and actor. Many activists consider her to be Australia's Angela Davis.
Music
Cummins is considered Australia's foremost indigenous blues performer, and is influenced by Big Mama Thornton, Etta James and Ray Charles. She honed her skills at the Berklee College of Music. Her band includes Murray Cook and Rex Goh. She showcases her vast knowledge of blues and roots music on Koori Radio, where she hosts Marloo's Blues, providing music and discussions from an indigenous perspective. This show won her the Broadcaster of the Year award at the 2009 Deadly Awards. Marlene co-wrote her first release "Whichway Up" with writer & performer Isaiah B Brunt, the EP was recorded and produced by Tony Buchen and released in 2008. "Whichway Up" made the top 10 Australian Blues Radio Charts and was picked up by Qantas where it aired on high rotation. Cummins wrote a song about Pemulwuy as a way of giving back to the Redfern community who see him as a hero. After dancing for Prince William, she gave him a copy of the song and explained the significance of the story to him, along with a petition to bring Pemulwuy's head back to his people. She provided music for a Griffin Theatre Company production Shark Island Stories based on the work of Sally Morgan. Her first full-length album, Koori Woman Blues, is a mixture of original and traditional blues songs and includes guests Gil Askey, Fiona Boyes, Mark Atkins and Shannon Barnett. She is working on a musical stage show using her songs called Boomerang Alley.
Cumins is also an accomplished painter and was shortlisted for the New South Wales Parliament Art Prize. She has recently been working on portraits and her saxophone in Rabbitohs colours.
Marlene Cummins was born in Cunnamulla, grew up in outback Queensland and Acacia Ridge, and has lived in Redfern for decades. However her country is Kuku Yalanji in the Cape York Peninsula. Her mother was a Woppaburra woman from Great Keppel Island. Her father, Darcy Cummins, was a Guguyelandji musician. He travelled internationally and established links with Native Americans. As a teenager she was in a relationship with the Australian Black Panther Party leader Denis Walker. Cummins performed a traditional Murri dance at Thomas Hickey'smemorial service. She is the focus of Rachel Perkins' documentary, Black Panther Woman, which premiered at the 2014 Sydney Film Festival.
