Queen’s birthday honours: recognition for Marcia Langton’s brilliant guiding light of indigenous education

Marcia Langton’s careful work with university students has turned out to be a powerful advocacy.

Professor Marcia Langton at her home. Picture: David Geraghty.

Marcia Langton’s careful work with university students has turned out to be a powerful advocacy. The University of Melbourne associate provost has helped hundreds of indigenous Australians transform their lives through education. In the process, she has helped usher in a culture of indigenous research that has had real benefits for the nation, and for the individuals.

“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with higher degrees are among that small percentage of our people who have closed the gap,” Professor Langton told The Australian. “This is especially so for Aboriginal women with higher degrees.”

Professor Langton on Monday will be honoured for her distinguished service to tertiary education, and as an advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, when she is made an officer in the general division of the Order of Australia.

She said one of the most gratifying aspects of her work as an ­academic during the past three decades had been teaching undergraduate students and supervising postgraduate students.

In 2000, Leon Manne, then the president of the Australian Academy of the Social Sciences, approached Professor Langton with what she described as a brilliant idea to establish a summer school for Aboriginal and Torres Strait ­Islander postgraduate students to help them complete their degrees.

“He asked me to work with him to make this happen and I ­immediately took the opportunity,” she said.

Professor Manne, now an emeritus professor at The University of Melbourne, raised money from the philanthropic sector, and the federal government eventually helped fund the program as well.

There was also assistance in high places. Professor Langton said the late Richard Pratt and his wife Jeanne generously hosted a fundraising dinner at their home.

“At that time, there were very few indigenous people with PhDs. Now there are hundreds,” Professor Langton said.

“The Summer School for Indigenous Postgraduate Students was an enormous success and any indigenous postgraduate student from anywhere in the nation was eligible.

“In the early days, many brought their supervisors with them and an indigenous research culture flowered.”

Professor Langton is proud to point out that among the graduates are pro vice-chancellors at Australian universities and many leading researchers in their fields.

“Supervising students is a difficult process but the rewards are immense,” she said.

Professor Langton is an anthropologist, geographer and author whose work outside academia ­currently includes co-chairing the commonwealth government’s senior advisory group on options for an indigenous voice. She is also a former member of the expert panel on constitutional recognition of indigenous Australians.

Her latest book, Welcome to Country, is a travel guide to indigenous Australia.