Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, who is the Fairest of them All?

Abstract

In this article, the authors, both of whom are Indigenous legal scholars, reflect on changes to Australian legal education since 2005. The year 2005 was chosen as the beginning point because this was the year that Author B published a vociferous critique of the treatment of Indigenous academics and students in Australian law schools. At the time, Indigenous perspectives of the law were mostly absent from legal texts. For the lucky few Indigenous scholars who broke through the glass ceiling, the experience was often clouded by isolation and unrealistic faculty expectations. Over the supervening years, both authors have had the privilege of seeing more Indigenous people enter law schools, and they have witnessed the gradual inclusion of Indigenous knowledge in the curriculum. Cultural change within law schools, however, remains a difficult task. Therefore, it is timely to revisit Author B’s article, and ask the question – Is it now possible for Indigenous people to see themselves reflected in legal education?