Dr Eddie Cubillo

Director, Indigenous Law and Justice Hub

Phone number +613 8344 2183 Email eddie.cubillo@unimelb.edu.au

Overview

Dr Eddie Cubillo is an Aboriginal man with strong family links in both the urban and rural areas throughout the Northern Territory. He is a descendant of the Larrakia, Wadjigan and Central Arrente peoples. Eddie is a lawyer, admitted to the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory and is recognised nationally and internationally for his experience and expertise in Indigenous governance and justice service delivery to First Nations Peoples. Eddie is currently the Director of the Indigenous Law and Justice Hub, at Melbourne Law School.

In 2022 he completed his PhD thesis titled What Does ‘Self-determination’ mean in the context of legal service provision for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services, which involved interviews with key stakeholders in the ATSILS movement and won the UTS Chancellors award for outstanding thesis on the grounds of the significance of the work and the quality of the thesis.

Dr Cubillo has been a former Chair of the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) and the Northern Territory Aboriginal Justice Advisory Committee. In 2002 he was elected to the ATSIC Yilli Rreung Regional Council, and subsequently became the Chair. In 2010 Dr Cubillo was appointed the Anti - Discrimination Commissioner of the Northern Territory. Mr Cubillo then took on the role of Executive Officer with National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Legal Service (NATSILS). As the Executive Officer he championed the rights of Indigenous Australians in a legal context. In 2015 he was named the National Indigenous Legal Professional of the year and in 2016 attended Geneva on a UN Indigenous fellowship. In 2017 he then took up an opportunity to work on the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory as the Director of Community Engagement.

Eddie currently sits as an Independent Representative on the Justice Policy Partnership under the Closing the Gap Agreement, Co-Chairs the Indigenous Governance Awards for Reconciliation Australia and is a member of the panel appointing members to the Victorian Treaty Authority.