31 - Indigenous Legal Traditions and Australian Legal Education

Summary

Nicole Watson discusses the challenges faced by First Law and First Nations Scholars in Australian law schools. While a number of jurists have traced an outline of Indigenous Australian jurisprudence she notes that much work remains to be done to chart law and to find a place for it in Australian law schools. Likewise, though more and more Indigenous Australian scholars are enrolling in law schools, many did not complete their studies because legal education is isolating and colonising. Watson tentatively charts a way forward, engaging with John Borrow’s and Val Napoleon’s work in Canada, which seeks to draw out ‘principles of Indigenous law from stories’. This, Watson thinks, might provide a promising pathway: sharing of stories has the‘potential to create a bridge between Indigenous communities and legal scholars,’ breaking down the monologic nature of Australian legal education, and providing resources to bolster Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.