Australia's First Law: An Argument for the Inclusion of Indigenous Law in Australian Legal Education

Abstract

Law schools are the breeding grounds of the legal profession. And yet, Indigenous knowledge and perspectives are largely absent from the body of legal wisdom inherited by each new generation of law students. Responding to a global proliferation in literature on Indigenous education and the growing interest in the ‘indigenisation’ of university curricula, Australian law schools have been increasingly implementing strategies to raise the levels of Indigenous ‘content’ in the curriculum. However, there has been little specific consideration of the place of Indigenous law in Australian legal education, as distinct from the teaching of Indigenous ‘issues’ or perspectives in relation to the Anglo-Australian legal system.This paper analyses the past, present and future of Indigenous law in Australian law schools. Using property law as a case study, the paper begins by outlining how past policies denying the existence of Indigenous legal systems have resulted in the present absence of Indigenous law in the curricula of the 35 Australian law schools. It then makes an argument for the future inclusion of Indigenous law in Australian legal education on the basis of its practical, social and comparative importance for students and lawyers. Drawing on the emerging Indigenous law programs in Canadian and New Zealand universities, this paper presents a picture of both the challenges and possibilities for embracing Indigenous law as part of the training of all lawyers.