ATSILS held a stall at the NAIDOC celebration at Ferny Grove State High School on Wednesday 10th July which saw approximately 2000 students and teachers come down to the oval to participate.
The day was a great success with many students and teachers stopping by the stall to ask about what ATSILS does. Some students had great questions about the law and current legal issues. The wristbands and information brochures were very popular and were quickly all snapped up by eager students.
We all know kids have a right to learn, but last year Queensland state schools suspended and excluded nearly 3,900 more students than the year before – a total of 81,918 kids missed out on their right to learn. Join and share our A Right To Learn campaign now to keep the pressure on the government to call a full parliamentary inquiry!
Join the campaign here https://www.arighttolearn.com.au/pledge
Last week ATSILS’s solicitor Cicilia Halaholo presented our Respect@Work CLE session to a deadly group of students from the Indigenous Youth Mobility Pathways Project (IYMP).
IYMP in Cairns provides a training program for youth from the Torres Strait Islands and Cape York.
Our Respect@Work Legal Service focuses on preventing Workplace Sexual Harassment with casework and community legal education offered as part of the program.
Students showed keen interest during the workshop and are now armed with better legal knowledge to support their journeys into the workforce. The students were also given a range of ATSILS merchandise and legal resources to take home and reinforce their learning on the 
topic.
ATSILS looks forward to forging more community partnerships with IYMP to nurture a solid future for our youth.
Please contact ATSILS for more information on the Respect@Work legal service. https://atsils.org.au/contact/
ATSILS’ Community Legal Education Team recently delivered a talk to a group of young people participating in Youth Justice’s Transition 2 Success Program.
The talk covered topics including: why it is important to understand your rights when dealing with police; understanding the right to silence, the right to have a support person present and the right to ask if you are free to leave; the questions that you are legally obligated to answer in police interactions; understanding police searches; and what to do if you are a victim of crime or want to make a complaint about police conduct.
The young ones were very open and asked great questions. Many spoke of their own experiences and this generated even more yarns about what to do in certain scenarios and the importance of understanding your rights and obligations under the law when interacting with police.
Members of our Brisbane CLE team were out in the community last week empowering students at the Hymba Yumba Independent School to understand their legal rights.
Pree Sharma and Michelle Rabbidge delivered the community legal education session to the deadly young group. The session focussed on teaching the jarjums about their basic rights when interacting with police, what to do if they are stopped by the police, when to seek legal advice and what to do if they are a victim of a crime.
Approximately 30 students attended and were very engaged, asking great questions along the way. ATSILS regularly delivers legal education sessions to the community as part of our Prevention, Intervention and Community Legal Education Program.
On 1 February, Julie Kefford and Pree Sharma attended the Youth Justice Family Led Decision Making Community of Practice hosted by QATSICPP which is a monthly forum where 4 community-controlled organisations from across Queensland come together to reflect on program implementation and practice, identify shared issues, share successes and help QATSICPP identify what needs to be advocated on the sector’s behalf.
Julie delivered a detailed community legal education presentation on youth justice issues including police interactions with our young people, understanding rights and diversion options as well as an overview of legal processes and jargon. The CLE was well received. We look forward to further opportunities to expand on this CLE into more specific aspects of the law. We thank QATSICPP for this opportunity and their commitment to breaking down barriers for our families and young people engaging with the criminal justice system.
A first of its kind, the Act recognises Torres Strait Islander lore in Western Law and establishes a process for the legal recognition of Torres Strait Islander traditional child rearing practice.
‘Meriba Omasker’ and ‘Kaziw Kazipa’ is made up of language terms from Eastern island language and Top Western island languages of the Torres Strait and collectively is translated as ‘for our children’s children’.
Find out more by visiting the Office of the Commissioner (Meriba Omasker Kaziw Kazipa) website:
https://www.ocmokk.qld.gov.au/
View the legal information fact sheet developed by Legal Aid QLD, ATSILS QLD and QIFVLS:
Ailan Kastom child rearing practice in Torres Strait Islander families
How do I get Ailan Kastom recognised under the law?
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service (QLD) Ltd was a joint winner last night in the “Partnership” category of the 2021 Queensland Reconciliation Awards for our work with key partners in delivering the Northern Peninsula Area Licensing Muster Initiative.
The initiative aims to reduce unnecessary contact that Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples experience with the criminal justice system related to driving and vehicle related offending. Such contact often leads to offenders being sent to correctional facilities located thousands of kilometres away from their community.
