Yindyamarra in Action: Indigenous Cultural Competence as Core Business within Legal Education and Law Schools

This chapter reflects on our journey of embedding of Indigenous cultural competence across the design, development and delivery of curriculum and pedagogy in the Bachelor of Laws at Charles Sturt University. It also reflects on our journey in building strong Indigenous community partnerships to underpin the embedding of Indigenous cultural competency across legal education. The three co-authors were heavily involved in the iterative development of the law program, and the establishment of the Centre for Law and Justice (CSU’s law school equivalent), which has achieved best practice recognition within CSU, nationally and internationally. In this chapter, we examine three aspects of the law program and the Centre for Law and Justice that offers undergraduate degrees. First, Alison Gerard, who founded the law program and law school at CSU, reflects on the design of the program alongside the knowledge and scholarship of law and legal education as it relates to Indigenous cultural competence. Second, Annette Gainsford analyzes the development of curriculum including place of critical reflexivity as scholars, teachers and researchers and the establishment of Indigenous community partnerships. Third, Kim Bailey outlines pedagogical approaches to the delivery of curriculum including teaching and learning and compliance with professional accreditation frameworks. This chapter offers insights on ‘Yindyamarra in Action’: multi-level processes – top-down, bottom-up and peer-to-peer – for authentically and respectfully incorporating Indigenous cultural competence in law. We labor for a law program that is based on principles of respect for First Peoples’ cultures, histories, and knowledges and is grounded in ‘Yindyamaldhuray yalibilinga mawang’, meaning two-way learning in Wiradyuri language, and reciprocal relationships that build change. While our journey to cultural competence will never end, it is important to celebrate milestones along the way and offer this learning to the growing, vibrant community of practice on Indigenous cultural competence.