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Reflecting on seven years of failed attempts to secure government funding and legislation for the NSW District Court’s Walama List, Justice Dina Yehia urged fellow judges to press ahead on their own.
Year after year, a working group comprising lawyers, corrections staff, Aboriginal community organisations, and Justice Dina Yehia – then a judge of the NSW District Court – had requests for support to get the Walama List off the ground knocked back by the government.
Finally, the court was driven “to just go in and do it alone” with the ongoing support of service providers and stakeholders.
The pilot commenced in February 2022 and has since provided alternative sentencing procedures with a focus on therapeutic and holistic approaches for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Speaking to Lawyers Weekly, Justice Yehia said Walama “is an example of judges doing it themselves” and encouraged other judicial officers to consider changes in their own mainstream courtrooms.
“You can start a specialist list. What we have to do is engage with stakeholders and service providers in the communities.
“Community is very important, get them all on board so you can actually do that in the mainstream,” Justice Yehia said.
The senior judge added that in addition to lists and other practical solutions-focused changes to courtrooms, the judiciary can also adopt a trauma-informed approach “in the way that you speak to people”.
“Respect and dignity [are] very important. People might think that’s a little thing, but it’s not a little thing – it’s actually a very big thing. [Especially] by understanding what the services are that exist and drawing them into the particular matter,” Justice Yehia said.
On a panel at the Bugmy Bar Book’s Solutions Focused Justice Symposium, Justice Yehia said the one good thing about “the seven years of terror and torture” that was waiting for government support was the time spent collaborating with the working group.
From the very early stages, the group collaborated on the Walama List’s objectives, including providing meaningful rehabilitation, reducing the rate of incarceration, recognising the voices of First Nations people, and building trust with the Indigenous community.
In conversation with Lawyers Weekly after the panel, Justice Yehia encouraged judges to reach out to their local communities.
“Get to know the community organisations, know where they are, what they do, engage with them, build connections. It is all about connections – that’s what the symposium is about,” Justice Yehia said.
“People can do an extraordinary amount if they are connected and working together. People do much, much less when working in silos.”
Speaking to the audience at the symposium, Justice Yehia encouraged other members of the judiciary to look at their own courtrooms and consider the changes they can make themselves.
“If I have a message for judicial officers across Australia and elsewhere, [it is] if you have the opportunity to set up a list, or if you have the opportunity to apply in your mainstream courts solution-focused justice, do not wait for government support,” Justice Yehia said.
“Obviously, and ideally, it is better to do it with proper funding, but if you wait for that to happen, it is likely it will not happen.”
Articles from the Justice Symposium:
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