Celebrating 100 Indigenous UNSW Law Graduates 100-Indigenous-Law-Graduates-Event_Booklet_V13_FIN | Page 8

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From the Director of Indigenous Legal Education
That UNSW Law has surpassed 100 Indigenous graduates is
rightly a great source of pride to the Faculty. That is because
the legal education obtained by our Indigenous graduates
has enabled them to make immeasurably varied, positive
contributions to Indigenous communities, to Australian society
more broadly and in their own lives. Their achievements embody
the conversion of Founding Dean Hal Wootten’s commitment to
social justice for Indigenous Australians into reality. It is upon
this legacy that my own work with UNSW Law’s Indigenous
students builds.
Since 2005, when I began to get to know and teach Indigenous
Law students, there has been substantial growth in UNSW
Law’s Indigenous support and outreach programs and an
acceleration in their success. For example, some 70 of our first
100 Indigenous Law graduates have completed their studies
since 2005. While that is an obvious and important measure
of success, the far-reaching impact of a program such as the
Pre-Law Program, in which UNSW Law works with Nura Gili to
qualify Indigenous students for entry into Law degrees, could
easily pass undetected. It is noteworthy that UNSW Law also
has some 15 former Pre-Law participants since 2005 who
have graduated in law from another university, and at least 20
who have been awarded degrees in other disciplines at UNSW
or elsewhere. These students, too, have taken with them the
benefits of a critical, formative experience at UNSW Law.
There is clearly much that UNSW Law does well in facilitating
access to, and support throughout, legal education for
Indigenous law students. Nonetheless, there are needs yet
to be satisfied. To strengthen our existing foundation so that
we hasten the graduation of our next 100 Indigenous Law
graduates is the next step on the path set back in 1971 by
Hal Wootten.
Jeni Engel
Director of Indigenous Legal Education,
UNSW Law (2014 – current)
Jeni Engel is UNSW Law’s Director of Indigenous Legal
Education, coordinating and teaching outreach and support
programs for the Faculty’s Indigenous students.