[5] A poet and artist, she has published many collections, including two sound recordings and two selected works, of her poetry.

Cilla McQueen's poems include themes of homeland and loss, indigeneity, colonisation and displacement.

She writes as a descendant of the people of the remote (and now abandoned) archipelago of St Kilda in the Outer Hebrides.

In the 2020 Queen's Birthday Honours, McQueen was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services as a poet.

[8] McQueen was married to New Zealand artist Ralph Hotere from 1973 until the 1990s, and together they set up a studio and living space at Careys Bay, near Port Chalmers.