Teaching
We are educators who play a central role in developing our law students’ understandings of Indigenous cultures, legal systems, and experiences of settler law.
In 2019 the Council of Australian Law Deans made a Statement on Australian Law’s Systemic Discrimination and Structural Bias Against First Nations Peoples, stating that:
"CALD urges all Australian law schools to work in partnership with First Nations peoples to give priority to the creation of culturally competent and culturally safe courses and programs. In so doing, CALD acknowledges the part that Australian legal education has played in supporting, either tacitly or openly, the law’s systemic discrimination and structural bias against First Nations peoples."
The Hub is seeking to transform Australian legal education so that legal practitioners are equipped with the skills and understandings to support First Nations peoples in their justice work.
Hub Electives at Melbourne Law School
The Hub offers a range of innovative elective subjects to Melbourne Law School Students.
Traveling Subjects
This subject is an experiential and ‘On-Country’ learning experience. Through on Country experience and engagement with a range of organisations and practitioners, students will consider key and emerging issues of access-to-justice that lawyers must critically engage with in their work, with particular attention to First Nations justice. Watch the 2023 Darwin Trip highlights here:
Dr Eddie Cubillo and Jaynaya Dwyer won the 2023 Teaching Excellence award for their incredible work on this subject.
Indigenous Law in Aotearoa and Australia
Taught intensively in Aotearoa- New Zealand, this subject aims to equip students with expert knowledge on current Indigenous legal issues in Aotearoa and Australia and how each settler jurisdiction’s legal institutions addressing the ongoing presence of Indigenous laws, as well as challenging students to consider how this might be better done.
2022 class staying on Marae in Rotorua, Aotearoa
Classroom Subjects
Treaty: Indigenous Settler Agreements
Over the last 10 years, the ways in which the Aboriginal Peoples and people of Victoria have been working with the state of Victoria has been directed towards establishing institutions of treaty and agreement making. This research elective is being set up in order to address how JD students might contribute to the 'treaty' and 'truth and justice' processes through undertaking directed research projects. The topics of engagement are
- The Yoorrook Justice Commission
- The First Peoples Assembly
- The Treaty Authority
- The First Peoples - State Relations (FPSR) Group, DPC, Vic Gov.
The objective of this research elective is to think carefully about how research for Indigenous institutions is conducted; to develop skills in researching to a 'brief'; and to reflect on the particular forms of knowledge production appropriate to Indigenous-centred university research. The immediate co-ordinator of this research stream will be Shaun McVeigh, in close association from the Indigenous law and justice hub and collaborators.
Law and Indigenous Peoples provides students with an introduction to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and key legal policy areas impacting First Nations rights in Australia . We are joined by a range of experts throughout semester to consider policy areas across criminal law, statutory child protection, land rights and intellectual and cultural property.
Law and Indigenous Peoples students with Les Malezer, former chair of the Global Caucus of Indigenous Peoples negotiating the UNDRIP
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Clinical Subjects
Indigenous Legal Advocacy Clinic
In this subject student get real experience supporting Indigenous organisation or campaigns by providing research support on a law or advocacy issue impacting First Nations people.
Curriculum Review
The JD Indigenous Curriculum Review was commenced through a recommendation of the 2019 Review of MLS Indigenous Programs conducted by Maureen Teehan and Shaun Ewen.
The Hub works with a Committee of academic staff to review existing compulsory curriculum and work with subject coordinators and teaching teams to develop content and teaching methods that showcase Indigenous law and knowledge.
JD Curriculum Review Case Study
Legal Method and Reasoning
A compulsory two week intensive which introduces new law students to foundational legal skills. Through the review three full days of teaching on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander experiences of law were introduced to the subject, as well as reflective assessment relating to Indigenous experiences of law. Each year, students engage with new case study on an issue of First Nations justice lawyers can meaningfully contribute to, with an expert guest panel. In 2023, it was on the Victorian Treaty Assembly, joined by Assembly members and lawyers. This course seeks to centre First Nations experiences of law, through ongoing practice of Indigenous legal systems, right from the outset of JD studies.
For inquiries about the curriculum review contact Jaynaya Dwyer (Research Fellow at the Indigenous Law and Justice Hub).
Advocating for Legal Education Forms
The Hub advocates for changes to legal education across the profession to enhance the justice services First Nations people can access in Australia.
In 2022 Dr Cubillo, on behalf of the Indigenous Law and Justice Hub gave evidence at the Yoorrook Justice Commission, where he addressed the need to change law school curriculums and legal accreditation. We called for:
- Introduction of a mandatory subject for all law students being admitted in Australia on Indigenous history and law; a ‘Priestley 12’
- Ongoing profession development for lawyers on cultural safety and cultural capability
- Specialist accreditation for lawyers working predominately with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
You can read the full witness statement or watch the hearing on the Yoorrook Justice Commission Website. You can also read the Hub's Submission to the Yoorrook Justice Commission: Legal Education Reforms for First Nations Justice, Feb 2024.
For more information about the Hub’s agenda for Legal Education reform read our article on Indigenous Programs at Law School published in the Law Institute Journal NAIDOC special edition.
