Marjorie Hansen, Noongar artist, was born in 1922 at Carrolup, near Katanning in southern Western Australia. Her mother was an Native American, and her father was a Noongar man. At the age of fifteen she married Felix Hansen, who was then seventeen. Felix was a post cutter who was employed to work on the fence lines of different farming properties in the southwestern region, and Marjorie and their children would move with him and camp on the properties for the duration of his work. Marjorie made her first paintings on paperbark in the 1960s, while she was living on Wagin reserve. She also created paperbark paintings while living in Allawah Grove in South Guildford. Later, when she returning to Marribank (which was on the site of the former Carrolup Native Settlement) with her family, she created paintings and ceramics as part of the Marribank Artists Cooperative that operated alongside the Marribank Family Centre in the 1980s. In later years she moved to the Perth suburb of Koongamia. She continued to paint, selling her work through a gallery shop on St Georges Terrace. She would often sign her paintings with her Noongar name – chitty chitty (or willy wagtail).

A watercolour work created by Hansen in 1967 is in the collection of the Berndt Museum of Anthropology, and was included in the 'Koorah Coolingah (Children Long Ago)’ exhibition that took place at the Katanning Arts Centre, Katanning, and the Western Australian Museum in Perth during the 2006 Perth International Arts Festival. Hansen’s son Philip Hansen is also an artist, and his mother’s art practice has been a source of inspiration for him.

Hansen passed away in November 2008. She was living in Collie, where she was close to her many children and grandchildren.

Writers:

Fisher, Laura

Date written:

2009

Last updated:

2011