Speakers

Ben Grimes is a lawyer and linguist who specialises in communication issues in the legal system and cross-cultural legal education. Ben worked as criminal lawyer and community legal educator with the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) in the NT, including two years based in Nhulunbuy. Ben developed a particular focus on incorporating Aboriginal law into therapeutic sentencing options, community courts, and working with Law and Justice groups in remote communities. He regularly delivers training and consultancy services to judicial officers, court staff and legal organisations on improving communication with people from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds. Ben has an MA in Applied Linguists, speaks a number of languages and is involved in bilingual education and language advocacy in the NT and in West Timor, Indonesia.

The Honourable Justice David Berman graduated with a Bachelor of Law University of Adelaide in 1977 and in 1980 was admitted as a Legal Practitioner in the Supreme Court of South Australia and the High Court of Australia. He went on to practice as a barrister dealing exclusively in the area of matrimonial law, becoming a Senior Counsel in 2019 and was appointed to be a Judge of the Family Court of Australia in 2013. A member of International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, Justice Berman is also a Family Court representative to the Judicial Council on Cultural Diversity and is also a member of the Law Society of South Australia’s Family Law Committee.

David Woodroffe is the Principal Legal Officer for NAAJA (North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency) with over 20 years’ experience in criminal law and management of the NT’s largest legal practice. He became interested in the law because he felt passionately about justice for the Stolen Generation and has since established a reputation for protecting and promoting the rights of Indigenous people. He was awarded the National Indigenous Legal Practitioner of the Year and the Australian Human Rights Award Lawyer of the Year. He is also the President of the Aboriginal Lawyers Association of the Northern Territory ‘Winkuku Rrambanji.

“Acting Justice Dean Mildren RFD is currently a serving judge of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory, having been appointed in 1991. He is a former lecturer in Legal History at the Charles Darwin University and has published a number of articles on Northern Territory Legal History. He has authored the definitive history of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory - Big Boss Fella all same judge"

Dr Diana Eades FAHA from the University of New England is a critical sociolinguist whose main research examines communication with, to, and about Australian Aboriginal speakers of English in the legal process. Her books include Aboriginal English and the Law (1992, Queensland Law Society), Courtroom Talk and Neocolonial Control (2008, Mouton de Gruyter) Sociolinguistics and the Legal Process (2010, Multilingual Matters) Aboriginal Ways of Using English (2013, Aboriginal Studies Press) and Discursive Constructions of Consent in the Legal Process (2016, Cambridge University Press, co-edited). Dr Eades has provided expert evidence in criminal and civil cases in courts and tribunals in three states and the Northern Territory.

Dima Rusho is a PhD candidate at the School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics at Monash University. Her current research focuses on Indigenous language interpreting and the law, mainlyin relation to the cultural and socio-political context of the Northern Territory. She is particularly interested in Kriol interpreting and the factors influencing the provision of Kriol interpreting services in the town of Katherine. Dima’s other research interests include the relationship between language and knowledge, critical sociolinguistics, and de-colonial approaches to language interpreting and translation.

Deputy Chief Judge Elizabeth Morris was appointed to the Local Court in the Northern Territory in 2010. Prior to that her roles included appointments as Deputy Coroner, Executive Director of Racing, Gaming and Licensing and Deputy CEO of the Department of Justice in the Northern Territory. She was named the NT's Children's Lawyer of the Year in 1999 and formerly worked as a barrister and solicitor with the NT Legal Aid Commission, predominantly in crime. As well as degrees in Law and Arts from the University of Sydney, she has a Graduate Certificate in public sector management, is a graduate of the ANZSOG Executive Fellows Program and holds an Executive Certificate in Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare from Georgetown University.

Georgina Heydon is an Associate Professor of Criminology and Justice Studies at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT University) and President of the International Association of Forensic Linguists. Her research focuses on the discourse and conversational structures of police interviews and other forms of crime reporting. A/Prof Heydon regularly delivers interviewing training to police and judicial audiences around the world and provides expert evidence in court cases involving language issues.

Justice Jenny Blokland was appointed as a Northern Territory Supreme Court Judge in 2010. A former Chief Magistrate, Her Honour helped develop the Credit (NT) bail programme and the Alcohol Court. She also developed the Community Courts, principally in Nhulunbuy and Galiwinku. While a legal practitioner she worked for the (then) North Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service and the Australian Legal Aid Office, principally in the areas of criminal and family law. Throughout the 1990’s she taught criminal law, evidence and international law at the NTU (now CDU) Law School. She is co-author with Stephen Gray of the text book “Criminal Laws Northern Territory”.’

John Jablonka was born in Melbourne and has lived and worked in the NT since 1995 as a community educator. Since 2010 he has worked in community legal education at NT Legal Aid based in Darwin but travelling across the NT and beyond, working with multicultural, indigenous communities and service providers. John holds a masters in social science focussing on participatory approaches in community development as well as a bachelor of arts. He has also worked as a cross cultural trainer, health educator and community development consultant on projects in the Asia pacific region. John spent most of July 2016 – July 2018 annoying people in the NT about the Blurred borders cards and project.

Justice Judith Kelly completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1973 and a Diploma of Education in 1976, working as a teacher from 1977 to 1982. She was employed as an articled clerk with a Queensland firm in 1984 and 1985 and was first admitted to the independent bar in Queensland in 1986. Her Honour then moved to the Territory to practise law had a commercial litigation practice with a focus on banking and insolvency and some insurance, construction and admiralty law. In 2009 Justice Kelly was appointed as a Judge to the Supreme Court of the NT.

Julian R Murphy is the criminal appeals manager at the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency and was previously associate to Justice Nettle at the High Court of Australia. His academic writing has appeared, or is forthcoming, in the Harvard Journal on Legislation, the Columbia Journal of Race & Law, the Alternative Law Journal and the Northern Territory Law Journal. He is currently a reporter for the Northern Territory Law Reports.

Lindsay Greatorex, is a traditional man from the West Kimberley region, based in Broome who is Legal Aid WA’s Community Liaison & Education Officer for the West Kimberley region. He worked for more than 20 years across WA as a Police Officer, and during that time was seconded to the AFP, training police in Timor-Leste on a UN mission. Language and communication about laws has been central to his experience in remote locations working with Indigenous people, initiating proactive crime prevention programs as well as indigenous liaison and recruitment for resource companies.

Dr Michael Cooke is a member of the NAATI Board of Directors. He is a linguist and principal of Intercultural Communications, which provides training for Indigenous language interpreters and consultancy services for agencies that use them, particularly in health, legal and judicial domains. He completed his PhD in linguistics in 1997, becoming a specialist in legal interpreting and forensic linguistics. Dr Cooke is a NAATI recognised practising interpreter and translator in Djambarrpuyngu, one of the languages spoken by the Yolngu people of North East Arnhem Land. He is widely known as an expert in his field, researching, presenting, providing expert evidence as a forensic linguist and publishing extensively in language and law. He has a long-standing professional relationship with NAATI, beginning with chairing the Northern Territory Regional Advisory Committee in 1995.

NT Chief Justice Grant has been in his current role since July 2016. At the time of his appointment he had held the position of Solicitor-General for the Northern Territory. Prior to that he practised at the private bar and was appointed as one of Her Majesty's Counsel in 2006. A former lecturer at Charles Darwin University, he was a special tutor for Indigenous students undertaking legal studies in the Faculty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. Chief Justice Grant's other appointments have included Statutory Supervisor of the Northern Territory Legal Profession from 2007 to 2016, President of the Health Professional Review Tribunal from 2000 until 2008, member of the Executive of the NT Bar Association, member of the Legal Practitioners Admission Board, and Bar Association representative on the Council of the Law Society.

Justice Peter Barr was appointed a Supreme Court judge in 2010. Before that he had been a barrister and before that a solicitor, after moving to the Northern Territory from Sydney in 1976. He acted as counsel assisting former Aboriginal Land Commissioners Justice John Toohey in the Gurindji land claim to Daguragu Station, and Sir William Kearney in the Cox River (Alawa/Ngandji) land claim. Justice Barr today is a keen observer of the important work of Aboriginal interpreters in the many criminal cases heard by the Supreme Court.

Russell Goldflam’s involvement with Aboriginal interpreting began with his appointment in 1981 as Co-ordinator of the Interpreter Training Program at the Institute for Aboriginal Development in Alice Springs. During his time with the program, NAATI accreditation was secured for the Program’s Western Desert, Arandic, Warlpiri and Warumungu interpreting courses, and in 1983 the Institute established Australia’s first Aboriginal Interpreter Service. In 1993, Russell enrolled in law as an external student, and was admitted to practice in 1997. Over the next twenty years, he worked as a legal aid lawyer with many of the interpreters he had trained in the 1980s, and continued to advocate for Aboriginal interpreter services. Russell contributed to both the first and second Language and the Law conferences.

Professor Sandra Hale is Convenor of Linguistics and Interpreting and Translation at the University of New South Wales. Her qualifications include a Bachelor of Arts in Interpreting and Translation, a Diploma of Education, a Master of Applied Linguistics, and a PhD in court interpreting/forensic linguistics. She is currently involved in a number of large externally funded research projects dealing with different aspects of interpreting in court, police and medical settings. She is the sole author of the books: The Discourse of Court Interpreting (2004/2010) and Community Interpreting (2007), and co-author of four other books. Professor Hale also has many years’ experience as a NAATI accredited/certified Spanish interpreter and translator, and continues to practise as a conference interpreter.

Shelley Alvarez has completed a Bachelor of Laws and Masters in Human Rights Law and Policy. Shelley entered the legal profession in 2010 and worked as a remote outreach and civil lawyer at NT Legal Aid from 2014-2017. Since then Shelley has been in the role of Multicultural Educator at NT Legal Aid, working with culturally and linguistically diverse communities to facilitate better understanding of the law, rights, and ways to prevent and address legal issues. Shelley has worked on programs including legal health checks, work rights for overseas students and legal training for multicultural interpreters.

Stephen John Gageler was appointed to the High Court in October 2012. At the time of his appointment he was Solicitor-General of Australia. He is a graduate of the Australian National University and has post-graduate qualifications from Harvard University. He was admitted as a barrister of the Supreme Court of New South Wales in 1989 and was appointed Senior Counsel in 2000. Before his appointment as Solicitor-General in 2008, he practised as a barrister extensively throughout Australia principally in constitutional law, administrative lawand commercial law.

Temali Howard is a Jaru woman from the Halls Creek area currently working with Legal Aid Western Australia in remote and regional communities across the East Kimberley region. She has over a decade of experience in the youth, criminal justice and education sectors, having previously worked for Corrective Services in a community based setting with adults and young people throughout the East and West Kimberley regions. Temali's current role is Community Liaison and Education Officer � funded after a successful Commonwealth pilot program aimed at increasing access to justice for Aboriginal people. She conducts ongoing legal needs analysis and develops local programs to respond to those needs in partnership with other agencies. Temali also provides support to lawyers in managing culturally complex legal matters and undertakes paralegal work across a range of legal practice areas. Temali is an active regional representative on the Legal Aid RAP Committee and a respected advocate for Aboriginal people throughout the East Kimberley. She attended language and the law in 2015 and came away with an idea that led to the Blurred Borders project.

Tim Goodwin is a barrister at the Victorian Bar and practices primarily in commercial and public law.Tim was one of the Junior Counsel Assisting the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory.Prior to joining the Bar, Tim worked at Allens as a solicitor for three years in commercial litigation, and in banking and finance. Before joining Allens, Tim served as Associate to Justice North and Justice Bromberg of the FederalCourt of Australia. He also served as Foreign Law Clerk to Justice Skweyiya of the Constitutional Court of South Africa.Tim has a Bachelor of Arts and Laws (with Honours) from the Australian National University and a Master of Laws from Harvard Law School.Tim is a member of the Yuin people of the South East Coast of New South Wales. He serves on a number of boards, including as a Board Member of the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission.

The Honourable Yiŋiya Mark Guyula Mark Guyula, MLA, is from North East Arnhem Land. He is a Liya–Dhalinymirr Djambarrpuyŋu man, of the Yolŋu Nation and in 2016 was elected to the NT Legislative Assembly. Based in Milingimbi he travels extensively throughout his electorate working with his constituents. Among his people he has the title Djirrikaymirr (Judge) and he is an authority on the Yolŋu traditional system of law called Maḏayin. His clan is one of a number of groups responsible for the oversight of the Indigenous central governance institution of Ŋärra. Prior to his current role he has worked as a senior lecturer in Yolŋu studies at Charles Darwin