Marlene Cummins

Cummins is considered Australia's foremost Indigenous blues performer, and is influenced by Big Mama Thornton, Etta James, and Ray Charles. The three songs were performed by Marlene at Sydney Conservatorium of Music on 30 June 2012 at "Our Music, Performing Place, Listening to Sydney" playing day with other aboriginal artists. Pemulwuy was an infamous and heroic aboriginal warrior in the first days of the Sydney colony near Parramatta. She provided music for a Griffin Theatre Company production Shark Island Stories based on the work of Sally Morgan. at which she was the headline act. ==Activism==

Cummins joined the Aboriginal Tent Embassy at age 16 and was at the centre of the Aboriginal rights movement in the 1970s. She was a founding member of the Australian Black Panther Party, which was inspired by the American Black Panther Party. She campaigned for medical, educational, and legal services, land rights and monitored police conduct on the "pig patrol". She was arrested for using obscene language to an abusive police officer, and absconded bail and fled to New Zealand. In 2012 she attended an international gathering of Black Panthers in New York hosted by Kathleen Neal Cleaver. In 2014 she spoke out against black-on-black violence and sexual assault. ==Painting==

Cummins 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. ==Acting==

Cummins has appeared in the TV series Redfern Now and Supernova, the feature film The Matrix Reloaded, and the short film Hush (2007), ==Personal life==

Marlene Cummins was born in Cunnamulla, grew up in outback Queensland and Acacia Ridge, and has lived in Redfern for decades. ==Discography==

• Whichway Up (2008) • Koori Woman Blues (2015) ==References==