Jillian Boyd Bowie is a Torres Strait Islander woman from the Samsep and Zagareb tribes of Erub and Mer. She is an author, poet and songwriter, born and raised on Thursday Island. After her engagement to Richard (Uncle Richy) Bowie, she relocated with her six children to Darwin, Northern Territory, where she works as a mentor for an Indigenous employment program.
In 2012, Jillian won the black+write Indigenous Writing Fellowship, along with Tori-Jay Mordey, for Bakir and Bi. In 2018, her poetry was highly commended in the Oodgeroo Noonuccal Indigenous Poetry Prize.