Read the Indigenous Law Centre's own Dr Kyllie Cripps' analysis of the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence final report at The Conversation now.
'The Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence’s final report, released last week, recognises the disproportionate rate of family violence in Indigenous communities. Aboriginal Victorians are nearly eight times as likely to be involved in a family violence incident involving police than non-Aboriginal Victorians and the rate is increasing.
Testimony to the commission made it clear that few Aboriginal families were immune to the trauma, despair and damage resulting from family violence.'
Indigenous Law Bulletin Vol 8 No 22 features an analysis by ASIC's Nathan Boyle of the current regulation of book up, outlining the current limitations of the legislation and case law, and proposing law reform which could more effectively regulate the service. Professor of Law Brendan Edgeworth writes on the four significant, post-Ward High Court native title decisions of Akiba, Karpany, Brown and Congoo, and distils the shift in the Court’s definition of native title as well as its approach to extinguishment. ANU’s Mary Spiers Williams breaks down the findings of a cost-benefit analysis of the Yuendumu Mediation and Justice Committee, and in doing so extracts a financial argument not just for local and grounded responses as solutions for problems in communities, but also for justice reinvestment and diversion across the board. And there are two articles which focus on Indigenous people with mental and cognitive disabilities in the criminal justice system: first, the team of researchers responsible for the IAMHDCD project report on their findings, and outline the five principles and associated strategies they recommend; and second, Patrick Keyzer and Darren O’Donovan of La Trobe Law School report on the key challenges identified in this area by professional stakeholders, then go on to outline proposed draft legislative changes that would address these challenges. The Bulletin features the artwork of Josh Muir.
Read Professor Megan Davis’s article in the latest Griffith Review here.
'Public policy no longer requires the imprimatur of the Aboriginal people; Aboriginal participation in the decisions taken about their lives is negligible. It is a distraction, an indulgence even. Desperate pleas for a renewed emphasis on Indigenous design and Indigenous participation are met with the unexamined refrain, "We tried that and it didn’t work". A mostly uncritical mainstream media cheers from the sidelines, dutifully promoting prime ministerial remote-community fly-bys as policy and gushingly retweeting images of unnamed natives: state-funded junket as "the coming of the light".'
