Bulletin

Issue: August 2004

News

Empowering role of the Koori Court

The Koori Court in Shepparton appears to be a huge success - and not only the Aboriginal Community has benefited.

Dr Angus McIntyre, convener of a recent forum on the Court held at La Trobe University, Shepparton, said many whites associated with it were among its beneficiaries. This was evident, he said, from comments about their dealings with the Court.

Deputy Head of the campus and senior lecturer in Politics, Dr McIntyre, said Ms Angela Bolger, who replaced the first magistrate, Dr Kate Auty, talked about the 'profoundly moving experience' of sitting in the Court.

Court Registrar, Ms Kerri Thomson, spoke of 'my empowering journey', progressing from ignorance to understanding Aboriginal culture. And Police Prosecutor, Sergeant Gordon Porter, described poignant moments when he brought together defendants and victims.

The Koori Court in the North East, established in 2002, was the first in Victoria. Conducted in a less formal manner than standard courts, all participants sit around a table. The court takes into consideration Koori customs and hears only cases in which defendants plead guilty.

Koori Elders and Respected Persons are integral to proceedings. Two sit with the Magistrate and, among other things, discuss sentencing. The Court first sat in Shepparton in October 2002 and, as Koori Justice Worker attached to it, Mr Daniel Briggs, told the forum, it has had to deal with only six re-offenders out of the 130 defendants.

La Trobe has a number of links with the Court. Dr McIntyre said the first Chief Magistrate, Dr Kate Auty, obtained her PhD from La Trobe in 2000 and La Trobe Law's Dr Mark Harris is evaluating the Shepparton and Broadmeadows Koori Courts for the Department of Justice.

Seventy people attended the forum. They included members of parliament, interested locals, and people from the Office of Corrections.

Dr Auty described the history of the Court, which had its origins in a recommendation from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody that the legal system be adapted to the cultural needs of Aboriginal offenders and their communities. This was followed by the Victorian Aboriginal Justice Agreement, adopted by the Victorian Koori Community and the State Government in May 2002.

The objective was to redress the over-representation of Aboriginal people in the criminal justice system - Koori people were 12 times more likely than non-indigenous people to be placed in an adult prison - and to reduce rates of re-offending among Aboriginal people.

Dr Auty told the forum that the Court dealt with offences normally heard in a Magistrate's Court, excepting family violence and sexual offences.

Several Elders and Respected Persons spoke at the forum. One, Uncle Colin Walker, said the Court was 'no soft option' as some critics have claimed. 'We really bore into them (the defendants),' he said.

However, he recalled a young male offender who had been fostered out as a child and lost all contact with his siblings until he was reunited with his sister in the Court. His sentence was to carry out community orders in his grandmother's country.

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