News & Current Affairs
13.12.23
The role of Community Legal Services for Indigenous Australians
A couple of months ago I travelled to the Northern Territory to undertake an internship at an Aboriginal Family Legal Service center in both Darwin and Katherine. This was an eye-opening experience that provided me with an insight into the many disadvantages Indigenous Australians encounter when trying to navigate the Australian legal system. The rates of domestic violence in Indigenous communities and the incarceration rate of Indigenous Australians are astoundingly high and out-of-step with national figures. Community legal services have an important role to play as one piece of the incredibly complicated puzzle in addressing these issues.
Indigenous women experience domestic violence at a rate of 45 times more than non-Indigenous women and are 10 times more likely to be killed as a result of it.[1] Further, Indigenous Australians constitute 27% of the national prison population.[2] As Indigenous Australians only compromise 2.5% of Australia’s population, and “are not innately criminal people,” this is a drastically disproportionate and troubling issue.[3]
Community Legal Services, through their inherent structures, access, and culturally informed knowledge, remove many of the barriers that exist between Indigenous People and accessing adequate legal assistance. I observed this through legal service’s implementation of the lawyer and caseworker relationship. It is common in community legal services to allocate a lawyer and an Indigenous caseworker to each individual client, in order to properly assess and provide for their needs. A lawyer is required to provide professional legal advice, and this is supplemented with a caseworker who provides culturally appropriate advice in a holistic sense. White lawyers can symbolise the very systemic issues which have been disempowering Indigenous individuals since colonisation, and, as such, there can be a lack of trust and often animosity when they reach out or travel to communities. In the inverse, Indigenous caseworkers have the ability to build familiarity and trust with their clients, acting as a bridge to these communities. For example, I observed during outreach programs that caseworkers will be able to quickly locate their clients at work, home, a women’s shelter, or local hang out spots, as well as have access to their contact numbers. Often, the white lawyer will not have this same relationship.
I worked with caseworkers who would sit in on initial interviews, providing emotional, cultural, spiritual, and logistical advice. Further, Indigenous individuals facing disadvantage often have multiple issues relating to the capacity required to work with a legal adviser. As such, caseworkers often assist in gathering necessary documents, ensuring the client meets appointment times and court dates, and conduct regular telephone or drive through check ins on their overall wellbeing. This structure has proved to be beneficial to clients throughout the entirety of the legal process.
I also noticed that the effectiveness of community legal services in assisting Indigenous clients, stemmed from their ability to address and understand the culturally specific experience of Indigenous People. Family is a source of identity for Indigenous People, and community is viewed holistically with extensive kin networks that interweave throughout the community. Family relations, domestic violence and reporting are often not kept private due to this community structure. So, the social ramifications of reporting abuse, obtaining a domestic violence or child protection order, and accessing legal help is a detrimental deterrent for Indigenous women. I noticed that the Community Legal services understood and priotisied this through their “client-driven” or “client-led” approach, essentially listening and responding to women’s needs in the moment. For example, they reduced a client’s anxiety of community shame by prioritising subtlety when visiting community through appropriate language and dress, and through a strict well-communicated code of client confidentiality.
Additionally, community legal services run outreach programs which assist in providing accessibility to Indigenous People. Many Indigenous communities are located in rural and remote areas in Australia. This implicitly reduces access to metropolitan or regional based legal services, and registries, courts, and tribunal facilities. For this reason, community legal services deliver advice services away from the primary office. These programs cover large geographical areas, and routinely send out lawyers and caseworkers to remote regions. Their long-term involvement in these localities enables them to engage with extensive networks, build ongoing relationships based on trust and to gain a deeper knowledge base. As such, outreach services effectively deliver a public access point in these communities which flatter the chaotic and transient nature of many of their clients’ lives.
The insight I gained into addressing the disadvantages of Indigenous Australians as they encounter the legal system will have an invaluable and long-lasting impact on me, as I finish my studies in the law. Whilst the role of Community Legal Services in addressing the systemic disadvantages of Indigenous Australians is a small part of the solution, it is a fundamental one and it is clear that these organisations require additional, long-term funding to ensure their work in remote communities can have a lasting effect.
[1] Karen Vincent and Joan Eveline, Mainstreaming Politics (University of Adelaide Press, 2010) 323.
[2] https://www.alrc.gov.au/publication/pathways-to-justice-inquiry-into-the-incarceration-rate-of-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples-alrc-report-133/executive-summary-15/disproportionate-incarceration-rate/
[3] First Nations National Constitutional Convention & Central Land Council (Australia), Uluru Statement of the Heart (2017) 1.