NJCA delivers its inaugural Indigenous Justice Program

Judicial Education Delivered Differently

The NJCA would like to thank the judicial participants, judicial leaders, program planning committee members, and speakers for joining us in Alice Springs for the inaugural Indigenous Justice Program.

As one participant eloquently noted: “We have been invited to understand the original grievance and how it echoes over centuries, we have heard the challenges of trying to be trauma-informed when frequently our courts are the source of trauma, we have listened to the imagination and creativity of Aboriginal courts and the optimism and sense of satisfaction of judicial officers who do that work.“

Sessions explored the ways in which Australian judicial officers can fundamentally reframe the way justice is applied: for example, allowing Elders to lead discussions, acknowledging an offender is equally a lifelong survivor, and expressing a sentence in terms of an offender’s strengths not just a recitation of deficits. Program themes crystallised for many participants:

It is important to acknowledge and sit with complexity and discomfort.

It was an extraordinary, national gathering of cross-jurisdictional members of the Australian judiciary.

The photo gallery below, over the four days, speaks for itself.