Goodwine was a native of
St. Helena Island,
South Carolina. She attended
Fordham College at Lincoln Center and double majored in computer science and mathematics.[5] In 1996 she left Fordham and founded of the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition.[5][6] In 1999 she became the first Gullah to speak before the
United Nations, giving testimony at an April 1 hearing of the
Commission on Human Rights in Switzerland.[7] She participated in the United Nations Forum on Minority Rights which was first established in 2008. At the forum, Queen Quet recorded the human rights struggle of the Gullah/Geechee people for archival by the United Nations.[8]
On 2 July 2002, Goodwine was elected and enstooled as "Queen Quet, chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation."[5][9] Goodwine also serves as the Chair of the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor General Management Plan and Expert Commissioner for South Carolina. She is a member of the 15-person commission established by the United States Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Act which was passed by the
United States Congress.
Goodwine is a public advocate for the Gullah/Geechee Sea Islands in the face of increasing storm damage resulting from the climate crisis[10] as well as ongoing flooding due to overdevelopment and poor infrastructure maintenance.[11] Her work includes advocating and the preservation of Gullah/Geechee cultural traditions and resources that are threatened due to
gentrification and
climate change.[12]
Goodwine served as a consultant for the 2000
Mel Gibson film The Patriot, which featured scenes set on the South Carolina coast of the Gullah/Geechee Nation. She has been an advisor to several historic documentaries, including This Far by Faith: The African American Religious Experience, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, Slavery and the Making of America, Reconstruction: The Second Civil War, and The Will to Survive: The Story of the Gullah/Geechee Nation. She also lectures throughout the world.
She is the founder of a historic presentation troupe "De Gullah Cunneckshun," which has recorded several CDs and been featured on films and film soundtracks.[13][14]
In 2022, she was awarded the
Order of the Palmetto by South Carolina Governor
Henry McMaster, who has sought to preserve the Gullah culture in the state.[15]
Books
Goodwine, Marquetta L. (1995). "St. Helena's Serenity." Gullah/Geechee: The Survival of Africa's Seed in the Winds of the Diaspora series v. 1. Brooklyn, NY: Kinship Publications.
Goodwine, Marquetta L. (1997). Gawd dun smile pun we: Beaufort Isles. Gullah/Geechee the Survival of Africa's Seed in the Winds of the Diaspora series, v. 2. Brooklyn, New York: Kinship Publications.
Goodwine, Marquetta L. (1999). Frum wi soul tuh de soil: The Cash Crops of the Sea Islands. Gullah/Geechee Africa's Seed in the Winds of the Diaspora series, v. 3. Brooklyn, New York: Kinship Publications.
Goodwine, Marquetta L., and & the Clarity Press Gullah Project, eds (1998). The Legacy of
Ibo Landing: Gullah Roots of African American Culture. Atlanta, Georgia: Clarity Press.
Goodwine, Marquetta L., and Ronald Goodwine (1994). Brother and Sister... Heart to Heart (1994). Brooklyn, New York: Extended Kinship Appeal, Inc.
Goodwine, Marquetta L. (2005). "365-66." Gullah/Geechee: The Survival of Africa's Seed in the Winds of the Diaspora series v. 4. St. Helena Island, SC: Kinship Publications.
Goodwine, Marquetta L. (2006). "Chas'tun an e Islandts." Gullah/Geechee: The Survival of Africa's Seed in the Winds of the Diaspora series v. 1. Brooklyn, NY: Kinship Publications.
Goodwine, Ronald "Kuumba", and Marquetta L. "Queen Quet" Goodwine (2004). T'inkin' 'bout Famlee: A Geechee Down Novella. St. Helena, South Carolina: Kinship Publications.
Goodwine, Marquetta L. (2013). "Love's Sea Island Song" St. Helena Island, SC: Kinship Publications.