The single mum from Arnhem Land, will become first Yolngu lawyer

Growing up on remote Elcho Island, off the coast of Arnhem Land, Kenisha Gurala Gumbula says it never occurred to her younger self to think of studying law.

She saw others in the region’s Yolngu-speaking communities working hard in schools and health clinics, but not inside the courtroom as a lawyer.

After finishing high school and becoming a mum to two little boys, something inside spurred her on towards what had seemed out of reach.

“Just because I always like to challenge myself, so I thought: ‘Alright, I’ll just try law, because there’s no other Yolngu person that’s doing law,'” she said.

Now Ms Gumbula, 27, is on track to become the first Yolngu lawyer in Australia’s court system.

It has taken five years to work through a pathway program and associate degree at Charles Darwin University while juggling the kids and her job as a community legal educator with the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA).

She is now studying full-time to finish the Bachelor of Law degree that she says she has thought of quitting more than once.

The support of her family — especially grandparents and babysitting help from her mum — helped her keep going.

But she thinks others can relate, and some might take heart from her story.

 

“I don’t want to be a role model for just Indigenous people, I also want to become a role model for other Australians,” she said.

Her job in legal aid saw her working on the ‘bush court’ circuit, where judges, prosecutors and NAAJA’s mostly non-Indigenous defence lawyers fly into remote communities for a flurry of hearings every couple of months.

Her training has given Ms Gumbula an insight into the Western legal system that many Yolngu facing court struggle without.

“A lot of people go to court and they need help — they have language barriers and they don’t understand what the law is saying,” she said

John Rawnsley, who manages law and justice projects at NAAJA, said Ms Gumbula was already doing history-making work by delivering community legal education in language.

“She’s taken it upon herself to try and understand this Western legal system, and build up the skills and knowledge so that the Western legal system will listen to her and can do better in terms of hearing the Yolngu legal system,” he said.

The role also meant Ms Gumbula spent time talking about legal issues on the local radio network, in schools and on social media.

Seeing that, Mr Rawnsley said, meant “other young people will grow up and they’ll think they can be a lawyer as well”.

“We get feedback from Yolngu people and other Aboriginal people that they don’t even think they can be lawyers, that thought hasn’t entered their mind. Her path shifts that narrative.”

Ms Gumbula still has challenges ahead of finishing the degree in April and later passing her practical legal training but is aware of how far she has already come.

“I feel proud of myself.”