Lavery, Daniel --- "Book Review - Aboriginal English and the Law" [1992] AboriginalLawB 53; (1992) 1(59) Aboriginal Law Bulletin 13

• Book Review-Aboriginal English And The Law

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Book Review -

Aboriginal English and the Law

by Diana Eades

Continuing Legal Education Department, Queensland Law Society Inc.,

1992, 104 pp.

Reviewed by Daniel Lavery

The Queensland Law Society Inc., has recently published a handbook entitled Aboriginal English and the Law: Communication with Aboriginal English Speaking Clients - A Handbook for Legal Practitioners. The author is Dr. Diana Eades, a linguist and senior lecturer from the University of New England. She has extensive experience with Aboriginal peoples in Qld, the Northern Territory and New South Wales. She has been researching Aboriginal English since 1978 and has focussed on the legal setting since 1986. The publication is a result of interviews with Aborigines and legal professionals, research into Aboriginal witnesses giving evidence before various courts and tribunals, and the analysis of transcripts of hearings.

The volume is a handbook for legal practitioners and so is designed to have application to some of the difficulties which confront the practitioner in communicating with Aboriginal clients. In this respect, the Handbook's usefulness is enhanced by the body of six reviewers, two of whom are Qld practitioners with extensive experience in serving Aboriginal clients, who were assembled by the author to make critical comments on the first draft. For those of us who practise in Northern Australia an effective control of these materials will do much to further the interests of Aboriginal clients.

Yet the greatest asset of the Handbook is that it calls on the legal profession to have an increased awareness of an important and neglected part of lawyer/Aboriginal interaction. Dr Eades shows that the mainstream methods of communicating have a limited relevance and meaning in communicating with indigenous Australians.

Dr Fades is careful to restrict the application of the principles she outlines to Qld (absent Torres Strait Islanders) but, with some intelligent amendments, it is not confined to Qld. The underlying principles would be of equal benefit to a practitioner in Broome, Katherine or Brewarrina. Indeed, the response from NSW practitioners has been such that the next stage of her research is to concentrate her work on that State to determine to what extent the Qld handbook can be utilized there. Them is also interest sufficient for workshops to be planned in both NSW and Qld.

Moreover, if other professionals ignore the contents it will be to their detriment. It appears, however, that this is not happening. The interest shown by the legal profession in this publication is complemented by the interest of other professionals. Enquiries and comments from personnel in the health field, in social work; and employment areas have highlighted the broad utility of this work. Perhaps it also points to a dearth of materials from which these professional may draw in their own fields. Others, such as teachers and corrections personnel, would also be very likely to benefit from the Handbook.

The volume underscores, yet again, the continuing disadvantage faced by Aboriginal (and Islander) persons when they confront the legal system and particularly, the criminal justice system. Regrettably, it will take more than this slim volume to redress that wholesale disadvantage, but this work is a bold, practical step in the right direction. This book deserves to be widely studied by lawyers and non-lawyers alike.

Dr Fades is to be highly commended for her initiative and the QLS for its wisdom in financially backing the author and seeing the work through to publication.

The Handbook can only by obtained from the Queensland Law Society's CLE Department on [phone] or by writing to G.P.O. 1785, Brisbane, Qld, 4001.