Marion Scrymgour was born 13 September 1960 in Darwin to Clare and Jack Scrymgour. Her mother Claire (nee Mollomini) was a Tiwi woman, and her father Jack Scrymgour had been forcibly removed under the Aboriginals Ordinance 1911 as a small child from his home in Central Australia.

Prior to her entrance into politics, her employment history included Director of Wurli-Wurlinjang Aboriginal Health Service and co-ordinating community care trials for Commonwealth and Territory Governments in health service provision in the Katherine West Region. Marion is the founding Director of Katherine West Health Board Aboriginal Corporation. 

In late 2000, Marion contested and won Labor preselection for the Legislative Assembly seat of Arafura, after the retirement of Maurice Rioli. In winning the seat, she became the first Aboriginal woman to be elected to the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly. She was a member of the Legislative Assembly from 2001 - 2012, representing the electorate of Arafura.
 
In December 2003 Marion was promoted to the Ministry under Clare Martin and was assigned the portfolios of Family and Community Services and Environment and Heritage and in doing so, became Australia's first Aboriginal woman cabinet minister. Then in November 2007 she was further promoted to Deputy Chief Minister of the Northern Territory as a part of Chief Minister Paul Henderson’s Labor Government. Marion had truly reached an important pinnacle in her political career, being the highest-ranked Aboriginal person in government in Australia's history at the time. In late 2013 The University of Sydney awarded Marion an honorary Doctor of Health Sciences by Professor Shane Houston, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Indigenous Strategy and Services).

"Marion Scrymgour has bought the same integrity, passion and commitment to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health as she did to being the first Indigenous woman elected to the Northern Territory parliament, as well as being appointed Australia's first Indigenous female cabinet minister," Professor Houston said.
"She was central to the development of new health services in the Northern Territory, one where Aboriginal organisations care for entire populations - Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal alike - in an area roughly 70 percent the size of Victoria.