ILJH Reading Group

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The New Reading Group at the Indigenous Law and Justice Hub

A reading and community-building project with a through-line of ethics of solidarity - practicing accountability, responsibility and speaking up. Get to know ourselves and each other through reading works that bring a tingle down the spine.

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Semester 1 2026

Conversation 1 - Winter Counts (Thursday 5 February 12:00pm - 2:00pm)

Reading #1 for 2026 is a fictional novel: Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weide

A groundbreaking thriller about a vigilante on a Native American reservation who embarks on a dangerous mission to track down the source of a heroin influx.

Conversation 2 -  Mr Neal’s Invasion: Behind an Indigenous Rights Case (Thursday 26 March 12:30pm)

Reading #2 for 2026 is Mr Neal’s Invasion: Behind an Indigenous Rights Case by John Chesterman and George Villaflor.

This article revisits the 1982 High Court decision in Neal v The Queen, and how Percy Neal’s conviction sits within the broader political struggle for Indigenous self-determination in Queensland.

It explores how a seemingly minor assault charge became a pivotal moment in the legal recognition of Indigenous political agency, especially through Justice Lionel Murphy’s famous line that “Mr Neal is entitled to be an agitator.”

Conversation 3 -  Never Whistle at Night: An Anthology of Dark Indigenous Fiction (Wednesday 27 May 12:30pm)

Reading #3 for 2026 is Never Whistle at Night, an anthology of dark fiction contributed to by varied Indigenous authors and edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.

Shane Hawk notes in the anthology's foreword the redemptive capacity of narratives that examine the boundaries of reality and unreality. Offering alternatives to non-Indigenous answers to issues haunting Indigenous peoples today.

This Reading Group will cover a selection of three short stories from the anthology:

  1. Dead Owls by Mona Susan Power
  2. Night Moves by Andrea L. Rogers
  3. Collections by Amber Blaeser-Wardzala

Find the selected readings through the link below.

PAST READINGS

  • Conversation 1 - Treaty (Thursday 16 October 12:00pm - 1:30pm)

    Readings for discussion:

    Conversation 2 -  National Building, Lessons from the Victorian Treaty Process (Thursday 30 October  12:30 - 1:30pm)

    This Reading Group reading was reviewing a draft comparison of the National Building process between the Cherokee Nation and the Victorian Treaty for feedback [shared in confidence].

    Conversation 3 -  This All Come Back Now (Tuesday 9 December 2:00pm)

      For the final 2025 session of our reading group we will step back from the law to indulge in some superb Indigenous horror and science fiction. Our source will be the first-ever anthology of Indigenous Australian speculative fiction, This All Come Back Now (University of Queensland Press, 2022). Curated by the deadly Koori and Lebanese writer, Mykaela Saunders, the stories in this collection will scare you, make you laugh and see this place that we all call ‘home’ through new lenses.

      Professor Nicole Watson, Director of the Hub, has chosen three stories for the reading group:

      1. ‘In His Father’s Footsteps’  by Kalem Murray

      During a fishing trip a father warns his son to step precisely in his footsteps. Refusing to believe in superstition, the son disobeys his father with terrifying consequences.

      2. ‘Myth This!’ by Lisa Fuller

      While hiking through the bush a mother warns her young children not to depart from the iron barks. When they stray from her instruction the children draw the attention of a malevolent presence.

      3. ‘From When’ by Merryana Salem

      What happens when a film company uses time travel to get ‘reference material’ for a movie about the colonial frontier?

      Here is a link to the electronic copy of This All Come Back Now: ‪This all come back now : an anthology of First Nations speculative fiction‎ - ‪Record details‎ - ‪EBSCO Discovery Service‎

  • As the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria and the State are working through a period of intense negotiations under the Victorian Treaty Negotiations Framework, we come together with humility to think about the traditions that inform this process and what Treaty offers us all. Alison Whittaker, Harry Hobbs and Lindon Coombes have referred to contemporary Australian processes as Treaty-making 250 years later.

    While negotiations are ongoing, you can read the community explainer and joint statement on negotiations.  We will not be intending to pre-empt what might be in negotiated in a Treaty for Victoria, but rather to think deeply about treaty as technology for various aspirations, considering our place within this process and reflect on foundations.

    • Conversation 4 – lessons from North America (Thursday 24th April)
      • Amanda J Cobb, ‘ Understanding Tribal Sovereignty: Definitions, Conceptualizations, and Interpretations' 2005 (46) 3  American Studies
      • Wilma Mankiller and Gloria Steinem, ‘Governance: the people and the land’  in ‘Every Day is a good Day: reflections by Contemporary Indigenous Women’
    • Conversation 5-  Special session with Dr Harry Hobbs (Friday 16 May)
      • Harry Hobbs, ‘Anticipating and Weathering Challenges to Modern Treaties in Australia’ (2024) 35 Public Law Review 318
    • Conversation 6 – Special session with Dr Carwyn Jones (Friday 30 May)
      • Carwyn Jones, ‘Māori and State visions of law and peace’ in Mark Hickford and Carwyn Jones (eds) Indigenous Peoples and the State (Routledge, 2018) 26
    • Conversation 7 – Lessons from Aotearoa (RESCHEDULED to Friday 20 June)
      • Lincoln Dam, ‘Be(Com)Ing an Asian Tangata Tiriti’ (2022) 18(3) Kōtuitui New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online
      • Simon Hemopereki, ‘Settler/Invader Identity and belonging in Aotearoa New Zealand: Critiquing ‘Tangata Tiriti’ and Moving towards the collective future’ 2023 (46(3) Ethnic Studies Review
    • Conversation 8 – Advices (Friday 27 June)

  • Conversations take place from 2.30 - 4.00pm at the Indigenous Law and Justice Hub, Mezzanine level in the Melbourne Law School (185 Pelham Street, Carlton). This semester's reading group will continue to feature readings and speeches that focus on the intersections of race, racism and the law.

    • Conversation 3 – Moving Past Metaphor (Friday 18 October)
      • Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang, ‘Decolonisation is not metaphor’ (2012)1(1) Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education and Society, 1.
    • Conversation 4 – Breaking Our Silence (Friday 22 November)
      • Eddie Cubillo, ‘2023 Wingarra Djuraliyin (Growth in Thinking): Public Lecture on Indigenous Peoples and Law One more broken silence: an Indigenous academic encounters racism in the law school-  (link to come)

    Interested in more reading?  Our friends at the Global Corporations & International Law Laureate Research Program regularly hold their reading group on International Law and the Question of Palestine in the Indigenous Law and Justice Hub on Fridays.

Email mls-Indigenous@unimelb.edu.au with any inquiries about this reading group

Artwork by Carly Donovan (Wiradjuri and Dunghutti) colleague at Murrup Barak.

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