Davis, Megan --- "25th Anniversary of the Indigenous Law Centre Keynote Speech" [2007] AUIndigLawRw 2; (2007) 11(1) Australian Indigenous Law Review 1

• 25th Anniversary of the Indigenous Law Centre Keynote Speech

25^th Anniversary of the Indigenous Law Centre Keynote Speech

12 December 2006

Megan Davis^[∗]

Friends of the Indigenous Law Centre,

I welcome you all here today to join with us in celebrating 25 years of the Indigenous Law Centre and the Indigenous Law Bulletin.

For those of you who don’t know me, I am returning to UNSW Law School after four years as a Senior Research Fellow with the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning.

I am honoured to be celebrating this milestone as the new Director of the Indigenous Law Centre, particularly given that these are challenging times for Indigenous Australia.

The rapid pace of policy changes and law reform at a federal level has shocked many people in our communities this year. The changes have occurred in many different areas of Indigenous people’s lives: from amendments to sentencing laws and Aboriginal corporations laws, to changes to land rights and education policies. In every area, it seems that we have had only small windows of opportunity and minimal resources to respond or even comprehend what impact these changes will have on our communities.

That is what is so important about the role of Tom Calma at HREOC, and of Martin Nakata and Larissa Behrendt at Jumbunna, and indeed, everyone at the Indigenous Law Centre at UNSW.

The Indigenous Law Centre has a long and distinguished history of responding to changes in law and public policy, and has effectively contributed to national debate on Indigenous legal issues over the course of its 25 years- particularly through the contributions of Garth Nettheim and Mick Dodson.

In fact, under the guardianship of the Centre Coordinator Tony Westmore, the past two years has seen the Centre continue to undertake research in pressing areas such as access to justice and legal needs, delivery of legal services and stolen trust funds and wages.

Under my Directorship, the Centre will continue to contribute to analysis of the law as it affects Indigenous lives. My core vision for the Centre is about addressing unfinished business. We will focus upon an examination of how Indigenous peoples fit within the institutions of Australian democracy, and work towards answering the question of how we can we make our public institutions more inclusive of Indigenous voices and experiences.

In that respect, we begin our new research agenda with the 40th anniversary of the 1967 Referendum in 2007. We will also have a specific research project focusing on Indigenous women. The starting point for this project will be the Australian Research Council grant I received this year to examine why Aboriginal women in Canada fare better than Aboriginal women in Australia.

We will also continue the excellent work of the ILC as laid down by Garth Nettheim, Mick Dodson and Sarah Pritchard in research and advocacy in international human rights law – particularly at the United Nations. This work has been crucial in the past and will continue to be so in the future. We must continue to call our government to account for its failure to fulfil its obligations to Indigenous peoples under international human rights law.

I certainly hope that all of this work will involve collaboration with other Law Centres at UNSW and other faculties, other universities and also with government departments.

I think it is appropriate as Director to take this opportunity this evening to acknowledge the role of the UNSW law school in Indigenous law and legal education. The Indigenous Law Centre has played and will continue to play a significant role in demonstrating the law school’s commitment to social justice. The law school already participates in the successful Pre-Law Program with Nura Gili under the guidance of Sue Green and also has an Indigenous Legal Education Committee chaired by Professor Jill Hunter. I also wish to note that since my appointment as director I have benefited from overwhelming support from the staff within the law school – in particular, from the Dean and from Deborah Healey.

Education is the key to the future well-being of our people and our communities. As such, commitment to social justice for Indigenous Australians and to the education of Indigenous law students is vital. It is all too easy for Indigenous law students to feel isolated and intimidated and fall behind. Of late there have been many varied discussions nationally about Indigenous education and the appropriate learning environments that enable Indigenous students to succeed.

And in that respect I think it is fitting that both Larissa and my Mum are here tonight. For me, one of the key contributors to my education has been the strong presence of role models in my life. Larissa Behrendt has been a generous friend and mentor since I met her in 2000. Another mentor to me as a young Aboriginal lawyer is Dr Sarah Pritchard. Sarah taught me a great deal about the mechanics of the United Nations and international law, and about life in general – and she has always been a patient and empathetic friend.

And of course, my Ma. The beautiful invitation for this wonderful celebration provided a brief overview of my work experience to date as an introduction to my Directorship. Like many Indigenous family stories, my story has had its fair share of sadness. But despite the trauma that my four siblings and I experienced in our lives Mum provided us with a stable and happy household and early on she instilled in us a respect and love of learning. But in our home Mum espoused the importance of the routine of learning above all else.

Most importantly, Mum had real expectations of my siblings and me. And we respected her and worked hard to meet those expectations. Interestingly, it was not an overtly Indigenous narrative that dominated our household – it was a narrative of social justice. Mum taught us to gain insight into the great human themes: of suffering, of forgiveness, of justice and of injustice.

The crucial element was this: Mum worked hard to provide us with a critical lens in which to view the two Australias in which we as Indigenous children lived – and she prepared us to be articulate in both of the very different worlds that we would have to traverse in modern Australia.

And it is crucial that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students today are taught to master the art of walking between the two worlds.

For those Indigenous children who don’t grow up with a parent as their primary champion, it is important that we provide role models for them to look up to, to ask questions of, and to emulate.

Deborah Healey and I have already begun discussions about matching our current and future Indigenous law students with long term mentors, particularly individuals within the legal profession, to give every Indigenous law student the best possible chance at success. But we all know that success in education is more than just mentoring. And I believe that the Law school provides that multi-dimensional approach that will benefit our Indigenous law students.

The narrative of social justice and the effective learning environment that my Mum built for me is something that I also recognise as present in the UNSW Faculty of Law – and that is why I am so thrilled to be a part of it and contribute to it as Director of the ILC.

On a personal note, I would like to thank my Mum, Pinball and my little brother John and his beautiful wife Katie who have flown down from Queensland to celebrate with us tonight. I would also like to thank my wonderful partner and best friend James who is a great support to me and whose parents too have travelled a long distance to be here tonight.

Thank you all for coming tonight and celebrating 25 years of the Indigenous Law Centre.

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[*] Megan Davis BA LLB (UQ) GDLP LLM (ANU) is the Director of the Indigenous Law Centre.