00:02Leaving disappointed. Ruth Lankford, also known as Tipruthana, is facing trespass charges
00:09after protesting against native forest logging. She wanted the case heard on Aboriginal land
00:14at Piura Katina Risdon Cove, but last month a magistrate rejected her application.
00:20This was a really missed opportunity.
00:24The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre supported Ms Lankford's application, arguing Tasmania's
00:30current legal system doesn't fit Aboriginal legal principles.
00:34An Aboriginal legal and political system was in this country and looked through it in Tasmania
00:41for thousands of years.
00:42Some overseas jurisdictions have established court systems that recognise both Indigenous
00:48and colonial practices. While interstate, on country hearings have been held before, such
00:54as in the Northern Territory. In Victoria, Koori sentencing courts allow elders to sit around
01:00a table with the magistrate and other relevant people to discuss sentencing. And an evaluation
01:06found a trial of using reports about an offender's Aboriginal cultural and social background to
01:12inform sentencing represented a circuit breaker to high and rising incarceration rates in Victoria.
01:19It's really aimed at providing culturally safe, grounded, holistic information to the courts as a
01:27part of the sentencing conversations.
01:29Despite closing the gap targets for reducing rates of Indigenous imprisonment, Tasmania, like
01:35the rest of the nation, is going backwards. Just 5% of Tasmanians are Aboriginal or Torres Strait
01:40Islander, but the Aboriginal community now makes up 44% of the entire prison population.
01:47The Tasmanian Aboriginal Legal Service says Tasmania should develop culturally appropriate
01:52alternatives to mainstream courts, but it says the government must also invest more in
01:58early intervention.
01:59The earlier we can support, you know, mob and our people, the greater outcomes we will
02:05have around reducing over-representation.
02:08The Tasmanian government says it's committed to reducing the number of Aboriginal people in the
02:13correction system, but it has no plans to change the law to allow cases to be heard on country.
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