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 the 2020 Sydney Festival, films The Matrix: Reloaded and Hush, and television shows Last Days of the Space Age and Redfern Now, amongst others.

In 2025, Cummins was awarded the NATSIMO Senior Award by APRA AMCOS.

Alongside Cummins, Saltwater Band will also be inducted into the NIMAs’ Hall of Fame. Formed on Elcho Island, 560 kms from Darwin, the group blends traditional songs with ska, reggae and pop influences. Its album, Djarridjarri, was nominated for Best World Album at the 2004 ARIA Awards. The late Yolŋu singer-songwriter Gurrumul was a founding member of the band.

The NIMAs are one of Australia’s foremost music awards, and honour the musical achievements of Indigenous Australians across a variety of genres.

This year, vocal duo Stiff Gins – musicians Kaleena Briggs and Nardi Simpson) – has been nominated for Album of the Year for its fifth studio album Crossroads, as has Emma Donovan for Take Me to The River.

Other artists with nominations this year include contemporary artists Jem Cassar-Daley, BUMPY, Baker Boy, Miss Kaninna and Drifting Clouds.

More about the 2026 National Indigenous Music Awards can be found here.