Saxophonist, broadcaster, artist and activist Marlene Cummins has been inducted into the Hall of Fame at the National Indigenous Music Awards (NIMAs). Alongside fellow inductee Saltwater Band, she will be honoured at a ceremony at Darwin Amphitheatre on 8 August.

Marlene Cummins. Photo supplied

Marlene Cummins, a Guguyelandji and Woppaburra woman, is one of Australia’s most prominent Indigenous blues musicians.

She was born in Cunnamulla before settling at Winton, and studied saxophone and songwriting at Berklee College of Music in Boston. In 2022, she headlined the Sydney International Women’s Jazz Festival with Marloo’s Blues, a work that also featured at the 2023 Canberra International Music Festival. She also contributed the music to Griffin Theatre Company’s Shark Island Stories, presented at the 1994 Sydney Festival.

As a broadcaster, Cummins was the longtime host of Marloo’s Blues on Koori Radio, which earned her two Broadcaster of the Year Awards. Cummins was the founding member of the Australian Black Panther Party, and was the subject of Rachel Perkins’ 2014 documentary Black Panther Woman. She is also directing the upcoming documentary film Common Ground Blues.

She is also a painter and actor, having performed in Nardi Simpson’s Black Drop Effect at...