Community Legal Education
Community Legal Education
CLE Solicitor Danial Kelly addresses students from Casuarina Secondary College as Senior Criminal lawyer Glen Dooley looks on.
NAAJA delivers a range of Community Legal Education (CLE) to Aboriginal people living in remote communities.
Working with local community leadership who are always engaged to support the education activities, NAAJA is also advised by it’s CLE Advisory Group.
Interested residents and groups are encouraged to become involved in the design and delivery of activities and this also helps to ensure effective delivery of legal education.
Whenever possible, the appropriate local language is used as well as accredited translators.
NAAJA sees CLE activities as a means to build capacity and open opportunities for Aboriginal people who are interested in community development.
Communication is achieved by a number of methods including song, dance, acting, visual displays of graphics, film and speech.
For more information on CLE contact:
Donna Ward
Community Legal Education Solicitor
Ph: 08 89825100
PROJECTS 2008 - 09
Law into Language Project
In June 2008 the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) successfully applied for funding to the Indigenous Law and Justice Branch of the Attorney-General's Department to deliver the pilot project entitled ‘Law into Language Project’ (LILP), a Community Legal Education activity.
LILP sought to have English language law materials ‘work-shopped’ with groups of secondary aged students in three remote Northern Territory communities and then for those students to translate the law materials into their respective regional languages by producing all-weather signs as public awareness resources.
These work shops were conducted in Gunbalanya (Oenpelli), Kalkarinji and Wadeye (Port Keats) in August and September 2008.
Featuring prominently among the feedback from participants and other stakeholders was the value of lawyers engaging with the students in both English and the various local languages spoken by the students. Through dialogue in different languages students were able to develop stronger concepts of the legal terms used in Australian law whilst lawyers were able to begin to understand these legal concepts from various Aboriginal perspectives.
The need for indigenous youth of the Northern Territory to better understand fundamental concepts of the law is immediate and immense. This report concludes by reporting the successes of the LILP approach and recommends that funding be made available to extend LILP to all Northern Territory communities over two years.
‘Call me a Lawyer’ Aboriginal language DVDs
This project aims to produce a DVD using Aboriginal actors that will be narrated in eight local Aboriginal languages used in the Top End of the NT. These DVDs will communicate a few concise messages about the police questioning of suspects, and what rights people being questioned have. The DVDs will be distributed to community centres, schools, post-offices, sporting facilities, Centrelink offices and health centres and will be screened locally in the communities.
Legal Rights into Language Radio Project
This program aims to raise understanding in Indigenous communities about rights and obligations surrounding the process of police questioning of suspects. NAAJA has prepared a question and answer style document addressing many of the uncertainties and issues faced by Aboriginal suspects when questioned by police. These questions and answers will be workshopped with interpreters from the Aboriginal Interpreter Service in eight Aboriginal languages used in the Top End. Recordings on the same topic will be made and broadcast on local radio stations across the Top End.
Understanding the Balanda Laws about Drug Trafficking
The program is to produce four 10-15 minute educational radio programs in YolKu Matha, on the laws relating to trafficking cannabis. These programs would be broadcast on ARDS YolKu Radio frequently for six months and then be scheduled less frequently on an ongoing basis. ARDS YolKu Radio reaches North-East Arnhem Land, Darwin, and Palmerston (there are also approximately 1,000 YolKu people living in Darwin and Palmerston.)
The projects aims to increase YolKu community awareness about why trafficking cannabis is an offence and what the penalties are through interviews with the Chief Magistrate, a NAAJA Criminal Lawyer and a Prosecutor.
Domestic Violence Orders (DVOs)
In recent years the number of DVO matters has increased greatly. No organisation is funded to represent defendants in DVO matters in bush courts and NAAJA has found that few DVOs are properly understood.
NAAJA is partnering with other organisations to deliver CLE, particularly on DVOs. In 2008 NAAJA contributed training sessions on DVOs in courses delivered by the Council for Aboriginal Alcohol Program Services Inc (CAAPS), Job Futures (Wadeye), OLSH College (Wadeye), NT Corrections, Aboriginal Interpreter Service as well as its own stand alone DVO CLE programs.
In an effort to provide CLE on DVOs NAAJA have developed a series of posters and DVDs in Aboriginal languages which convey quickly some key messages. Short DVDs in various Aboriginal languages have been produced on DVOs. These posters and DVDs are being communicated to people in communities.
NAAJA Law Show on TEABBA Radio
Each week NAAJA lawyers are broadcast throughout the TEABBA network speaking on various legal topics. The Law Show is broadcast at 10.30am Wednesdays.
Elders Training
Elders involved with NT Corrections and the Community Court are provided training and resources to help them understand the language and processes of the law. The training includes legal terminology and criminal justice system procedures and is usually incorporated into existing meeting that the Elders attend.
Listen Up You Mob!
A series of short radio messages about countrymen dealing with the law in Kriol. These messages will be in story format and will take a light-hearted approach to explaining how to deal with the law.
Community Visits
We visit communities and run legal education activities for specific groups or openly to the community. We would like to be invited by the leaders of your community to run some community legal education in your community. Call us on 1800 898 251.
Welfare Rights Outreach Project
NAAJA provides education to communities and organisations about Centrelink and income management. (more info)
Students from Kalkaringi CEC with some of the signs they made as part of NAAJA's community education.
