On the right track

Protecting First Nations arts and culture

Featured in

  • Published 20230502
  • ISBN: 978-1-922212-83-2
  • Extent: 264pp
  • Paperback (234 x 153mm), eBook

GROWING UP, I never imagined I would become a lawyer with my own law practice.

I didn’t know any lawyers. I didn’t understand what a lawyer did. But I watched television shows like LA Law, where lawyers argued their cases in front of a judge. They always won, and they wore nice clothes, drove fancy fast cars and fell in love with other lawyers.

Already a subscriber? Sign in here

If you are an educator or student wishing to access content for study purposes please contact us at griffithreview@griffith.edu.au

Share article

About the author

Terri Janke

Terri Janke is a Meriam, Wuthathi and Yadhaigana woman, and founder of Terri Janke and Company, an award-­winning Indigenous law firm. She is an...

More from this edition

Filling the void

Non-fictionThese failures of clean-­up, or ‘mining legacies’, are the result of booms and busts – of minerals drifting in and out of favour. Nothing is as precious as a hole in the ground – until that hole in the ground is worth less than nothing. When a boom ends and a resource’s price plummets, a quarry’s metamorphosis from asset to liability can take place in an instant. When abandoned mines are located in out-of-­the-­way places, populated by those with little political influence, tailings may simply be left to blow in the wind.

The dancing ground

Non-fictionAfter some initial research, and only finding one historical reference to a ceremonial ground within the CBD, I confined the puzzle of Russell’s lacuna to the back of my mind. The single reference I found was in Bill Gammage’s book The Biggest Estate on Earth, where he writes: ‘A dance ground lay in or near dense forest east of Swanston Street and south of Bourke Street.’ Not a great lead because it was two blocks away from where it was depicted on Robert Russell’s survey.

Antecedent

PoetryBetween one end of the gap and the other the gravity of our gaze can but scratch like banksias  at your fingertips before starlight splits the present  across his teeth into pearl and lime stanzas.

Stay up to date with the latest, news, articles and special offers from Griffith Review.