Marjorie Ann Luck OAM

Awarded for service to the Arts, service to Human Rights

Born: 1939

Entered on roll: 2005

Marjorie Luck was born in Devonport and educated at the Devonport Primary and Devonport High Schools. She gained a Bachelor of Arts and later completed a Masters of Humanities in Tasmanian history at the University of Tasmania. She is the mother of two children, a son and daughter.

Starting her working life as a teacher, Marjorie has also operated a bookshop and taught child care at TAFE. She was Community Arts Officer at the Clarence City Council from 1986 until 2003.

Through the 1970s and 1980s, Marjorie was an active member and office holder of the Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL). She was instrumental in the establishment of the Hobart Women’s Shelter in 1974, securing funding and support for the refuge. Recognising the lack of health services for women in Tasmania, Marjorie assisted in the establishment of the Sexual Assault Service at the Royal Hobart Hospital, the Women’s Health Centre, the Women’s Phone Information Service and Annie Kenney Young Women’s Refuge. She provided ongoing support to all these services.

Marjorie contributed to the policy debate on anti-discrimination legislation and a review of the Family Law Act, and was an organiser and keynote speaker at the first National Conference on Rape Law Reform. She also participated in the drafting of the Australian Plan of Action to present to the United Nations to mark the halfway stage of the UN Decade for Women. As a member of National Shelter, the peak community forum for policy development in the field of public housing, Marjorie actively promoted the rights of women and their children to access appropriate public housing.

Marjorie has been heavily involved in community based arts in Tasmania since the 1980s. As the state representative for Regional Arts Australia, she has played a prominent role in promoting the arts throughout regional Tasmania.

As a representative of the Social Welfare Union on the Women’s Committee of the Tasmanian Trades and Labour Council, Marjorie worked to improve employment opportunities and conditions for welfare workers and women in particular. She has a continuing strong commitment to social justice and community development and has had an active leadership role in the establishment of numerous services. She has also made a prominent contribution to the arts, the development of public policy, public debate and legislative change. This has enhanced the lives of many and strengthened the community in which she lives.

Marjorie was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in 2005 for service to the arts and to the women’s and union movements in Tasmania.