Diploma Teaching (South Australian College of Advanced Education, 1987), Graduate Diploma Arts (Aboriginal Studies) (University of South Australia, 1990), Masters in Environmental and Local Government Law, (Macquarie University, 1999)
Alma mater
South Australian College of Advanced Education
University of South Australia
Macquarie University
Occupation(s)
Professor, University of Queensland
Employer
University of Queensland
Known for
Scholarship and advocacy in relation to cultural heritage policy, biocultural diversity, Indigenous intellectual and cultural property, Indigenous natural heritage rights, protected area management, and traditional ecological knowledge.
Her language name, given by her grandfather, is Bukal and connects her to country, to a place near Woree. Bukal is the black lawyer vine that is characterised by its strength, resilience, and ability to overcome obstacles. Professor Marrie's scholarship includes biocultural diversity, indigenous intellectual property, and traditional ecological knowledge. Through her scholarship and activism she has:
"fought for the recognition of Aboriginal peoples’ intellectual property and cultural rights and particularly for access to and repatriation of ancestral remains, cultural objects and important historical information from national and state museums and archives".[2]
"Country is the term often used by Aboriginal peoples to describe the lands, waterways and seas to which they are connected. The term contains complex ideas about law, place, custom, language, spiritual belief, cultural practice, material sustenance, family and identity".[23]
The Dulabed Malanbarra Yidinji Aboriginal Corporation explain that when they speak of Country:
"we mean much more than just the place we come from. Country is who we are and who we belong to. It is our relationship with other people and the world around us. A world where everything is connected, everything is family, everything is identity, our spirituality, our economy, our home and our people. Country makes us strong and keeps us well. People talk about Country in the same way they would talk about a person. They speak to Country, sing to Country, visit Country, worry about Country, feel sorry for Country and long for Country. People say that Country knows, hears, smells, takes notice and takes care. This is our Country. All aspects of it are of importance to us. All of it has spiritual meaning to us. The Country gives us our lore. The lore gives us our Country. Aboriginal people are governed by this lore.”[24]
The Gimuy Walubara Yidinji people are the traditional custodians of Gimuy (Cairns) and the surrounding areas. The area of the foreshore of the City of Cairns is traditionally known as Gimuy – after the Slippery Blue Fig Tree. The lands of the Gimuy Walubara Yidinji people extend south of the Barron River to the Russell River in the south, west to Tolga in the ranges, and east to Wambilari (Murray Prior Range).[25] 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.[26][27]
Biographical details
Marrie was born in Yarrabah, Queensland, an Aboriginal community approx 10 km due east or 52 km south-east by road of Gimuy (Cairns[28]),the traditional country of Gunggandji and Yidinji. She is the eldest daughter of Henry Fourmile (aka Queebalum – cyclone)[29][30] and the great-granddaughter of Ye-i-nie, a Yidinji leader whose leadership was recognised by the Queensland Government in 1905 through the award of a king plate bearing the title "Ye-i-nie, King of Cairns 1905.[31][32][33]
It was during her time in South Australia that she came across white anthropologistNorman Tindale's photographs, and later met him at the South Australian Museum in 1985. It was this meeting that led to the museum's release of the Tindalegenealogies which enabled many families to reconnect to each other and their country through native title processes.[35] The collection South Australian Museum Tindale collection (Series AA338/01) includes a letter from Tindale to Henrietta Fourmile granting permission to use the Yarrabah genealogies, dated 16 March 1986.[36] Her work and activism for the return of Indigenous cultural property continues, alongside others such as Kamilaroi elder Bob Weatherall .[7][37][38]
Since 2003, Marrie moved her focus back towards Gimuy, first working in Palo Alto at the Christensen Fund, a private philanthropic organisation to distribute grants and funds to help promote, sustain, and encourage indigenous biocultural diversity across Australia's north (including the Cairns region),[39] then as a Visiting Fellow at the United Nations university Institute of Advanced Studies in Tokyo before moving back to Gimuy and taking up a position as an associate professor at the central Queensland University's Cairns campus.
In 2013 Professor Marrie was engaged by the Chief Executive of the Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service to investigate discrimination against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees.[40] Marrie's review identified the role of institutional racism underpinning and reinforcing the interpersonal racism being experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees.[40] Together with her husband Adrian Marrie, they developed a tool to support the identification, measurement and monitoring of institutional racism in the hospital and health service. They applied this tool in June 2014 to the Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service, sharing the findings with the Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service, the Anti-Discrimination Commissioner for Queensland and the Australian Human Rights Commission.[40] This work led to substantive changes in the Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service[19][40] and was extended by Adrian Marrie to assess all Hospital and Health Services in Queensland and drove legislative change.[41] The tool was named the Bukal Institutional Racism Matrix by Adrian Marrie:
I would like to acknowledge my wife, Henrietta for her contribution and partnership in the development of the original Matrix which provided the foundation for the assessment tool used in this report. Her insights, strength and feistiness have forever been my inspiration. The revised Matrix is renamed in her honour: the Bukal Institutional Racism Matrix.[40]
The importance of the work done by Henrietta and Adrian Marrie to address racial discrimination in health care was acknowledged in a dedication at the front of the Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service First Peoples Health Equity Strategy 2022 – 2025.[42]
In 2018 Professor Marrie was selected as the subject for a Sea Wall Mural on the side of the Cairns Corporate Tower in Lake Street. The mural by artist Claire Foxton is called "If we lose our reef, we lose ourselves" and honours Marrie's contribution to the preservation and promotion of cultural heritage.[43][44] That same year, a dramatisation of her life and work, title Bukal, premiered on July 10 during NAIDOC week. The theme for NAIDOC week that year was "because of her we can".[45] Thee play was produced by the Jute Theatre Company, written and directed by Andrea James with important cultural guidance and input from Marrie's eldest son Carl Fourmile.[46][47] Throughout the development and production, Jute aimed to engage First Nations people in as many creative, performance and production roles as possible, had First Nations' led decision making, and designed the set to maximise the potential for touring the play to smaller communities.[47] The approach was praised by Marrie[48] and Creative Director, Bundjalung woman Rhoda Roberts on the opening night, who stated:
"The greatest commitment is allowing and enabling Aboriginal people to have their own voice and thank you for that because you had the trust and the faith in the story and you allowed this new voice of young Aboriginal people to tell this story of one of our “because of her we can”, Aunty Henrietta."[47]
Three actresses (Taeg Twist, Maurial Spearim, and Alexis West) portrayed Bukal, each representing different aspects of her character. The play ran during the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair receiving outstanding community and critical reviews, provided a residency program for First Nations' youth, and after touring in North Queensland schools played at the Woodford Folk Festival.[46][47][49]
Professor Marrie contributes to advisory boards and in other leadership and consulting roles for community and government, often working alongside her husband Adrian Marrie. She has joined the ARC Uniquely Australian Foods (UAF) Training Centre, at the University of Queensland[2] to advise on best practice protocols to protect the rights and interests of Indigenous participants in the project.
In 2023 Marrie was further recognised for her leadership and contributions to society with a University of South Australia Alumni Award.[50]
Fourmile, Henrietta (1989), "Who Owns the Past?: Aborigines as Captives of the Archives", Aboriginal History, 13: 1–8
Fourmile, Henrietta (1989), "Aboriginal arts in relation to multiculturalism", in Cramer, Sue (ed.), Postmodernism : a consideration of the appropriation of Aboriginal imagery : forum papers, Brisbane: Institute of Modern Art
Fourmile, Henrietta (1990), "Possession is nine-tenths of the law: And don't Aboriginal people know it", Bulletin of the Conference of Museum Anthropologists
Fourmile, Henrietta (1990), "The Case for Independent but Complementary Aboriginal Cultural Institutions", Extending Parameters: Galleries and Communities
Hall, Doug; Fourmile, Henrietta, eds. (1990), Trevor Nickolls : gondola dreaming and other dreams, Queensland College of Art Gallery
Fourmile, Henrietta (1993), "Cultural management & tourism", in Testa, Joe (ed.), [Video Recording], Lismore, NSW: Gungil Jindibah Centre, Southern Cross University
Fourmile, Henrietta (1993). "Cultural Survival vs Cultural Prostitution". Cultural Tourism Awareness Workshop on Indigenous Cultural Tourism in Far North Queensland.
Fourmile, Henrietta (1993). "Representing Kunggandji/Yidinji". Julayinbul Conference on Intellectual and Cultural Property.
Henrietta, Fourmile, Submission : inquiry into Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Culture and Heritage, House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs.
Moscardo, G.; Pearce, P.L.; Birtles, A.; Valentine, P.; Fourmile, H.; Burns, D.; Young, M.; Haxton, P. (1994), "Rainforest tourism: Research for Quality Tourism Management", Annual Meeting of the CRC-TREM
H L Fourmile, ‘The Queensland Heritage Act 1992 and the Cultural Record (Landscapes Queensland and Queensland Estate) Act 1987: Legislative Discrimination in the Protection of Indigenous Cultural Heritage’ (1996) 1(4) Australian Indigenous Law Reporter 507 – 529. Page 3 - 6
H L Fourmile, ‘Using Prior Informed Consent Procedures under the Convention on Biological Diversity to Protect Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Natural Resource Rights’ (1998) 4(16) Indigenous Law Bulletin 14–17.
H L Fourmile-Marrie, ‘Bushtucker – Some Food For Thought’ (1999) 19(4) Artlink 34–37.
H L Marrie, ‘National Research Institutions and their Obligations to Indigenous and Local Communities under Article 8(j) of the Convention on Biological Diversity’ (2000) 1 Humanities Research 41–53.
H L Fourmile, ‘Indigenous interests in biological resources in Commonwealth Areas – synthesis of submissions and related information’ in J Voumard (chair), Access to Biological Resources in Commonwealth Areas: Commonwealth Public Inquiry (AGPS, Canberra 2000), 199-278
H L Fourmile-Marrie, ‘Developing a Regime to Protect Indigenous Traditional Biodiversity-Related Knowledge (TBRK)’ (2000) 1(1) Balayi: Culture, Law and Colonialism 163-182
H L Marrie, ‘The UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and the Protection and Maintenance of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Indigenous Peoples’ in L. Smith and N Akagawa (eds), Intangible Heritage: Key Issues in Cultural Heritage (Routledge, UK 2008), 169–192.
H L Marrie. Emerging trends in the generation, transmission and protection of Traditional Knowledge. Presentation to the 18th Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, New York (2019). Available at: https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2019/04/TK-Emerging-trends-in-the-generation-transmission-and-protection-of-TK-final-paper.pdf
K. Galloway McLean, A. Marrie and H L Marrie. Great Barrier Reef Indigenous Tourism: Translating Policy into Practice. Report to the National Environmental Science Program (2020). Reef and Rainforest Research Centre Ltd, Cairns, Queensland.
^ abThe Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia. "2018 Australia Day Honours List". The Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
^Marie, Henrietta (2008). The UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and the Protection and Maintenance of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Indigenous Peoples' in L. Smith and N Akagawa (eds), Intangible Heritage: Key Issues in Cultural Heritage. London: Routledge. pp. 169–192. ISBN9780415473972.
^Nally, Alicia (2018) "CQU lecturer, Cairns woman, Yidinji elder Henrietta Marrie receives Order of Australia" in Cairns Post 26 January 2018
^Central Queensland University (2018) "CQ University Associate Professor Officially Presented With Order of Australia (AM) Central Queensland University Media 2 May 2018