As part of National Child Protection Week, QIFLVS offices across Queensland held community events throughout September to raise awareness and offer support to families.
Mulungu Health Service hosted a Family Fun Day for Child Protection Week. Cairns-based CMO’s Andrew & Lateesha participated in the event, engaging with the Mareeba community by organising a butterfly craft activity for the kids & parents. The day emphasized the importance of children identifying ‘safe’ people and services they can turn to, such as emergency services and community organizations. Events like these play a crucial role in strengthening community bonds and ensuring the wellbeing of our children.
Just a few months into his new role in our Bamaga office, graduate lawyer Ocholamero Oroto (Lamero) is already making many great connections in this tight-knit community. In September, Lamero hosted a Child Protection Week event featuring a children’s colouring-in competition with some amazing prizes, including push bikes and a Bluetooth speaker. It was a successful and memorable community engagement opportunity.
As part of Child Protection Week, the Cairns team attended a South Side Celebration hosted by Hambledon House Community Centre. Always creative, the Cairns team created a fun activity where children had the opportunity to create their own yarning sticks. This activity was designed to encourage children to feel comfortable having conversations that help keep them safe, fostering open communication and trust within the community.
QIFLVS, in collaboration with Ngukuthati Family Children Centre’s Playgroup, held a Child Protection Week event at the Mt Isa Family Fun Park. QIFVLS hosted a big breakfast consisting of bacon and eggs, fresh fruit and cereal. We also had an activity table for the kids making their own iced biscuits, which was a hit and each child received a gift bag at the end of the event. Brandon also delivered a CLE on Child Protection.
The QIFVLS Townsville team were delighted to partner with Feros Care Townsville to host this year’s RUOK? Day event at Bulletin Square in the heart of the city.
The event was a significant step towards promoting mental health awareness and encouraging open conversations about well-being. It was a wonderful day with plenty of community engagement, the opportunity to connect with other services and to have positive conversations around mental health and the support options in the region.
Feros Care put on a free sausage sizzle and drinks throughout the day for the community. Local Indigenous radio station 4K1GFM was also present, broadcasting live from the event. Townsville Case Management Officer Evan Ah Wing was given the opportunity to have a yarn with the radio host about our services and what we deliver in our community. RUOK Day Ambassador and former professional rugby league player James Tamou, helped with the BBQ and gave a great speech about his life journey and lived experience and how he has overcome a lot of barriers to get to where he is today.
To acknowledge RUOK? Week (it was extended beyond a day this year) the QIFVLS team from every office in Queensland was invited to answer daily ‘Gratitude’ questions in our online competition. Congratulations to the winners, shown above.
The Woodridge Family Fun Day in Logan was an event for families of all walks of life to come and enjoy. Ewing Park in Woodridge was jam-packed with smiling faces of people enjoying slushies, the petting zoo, the miniature train rides, and arts & crafts. Stallholders also held activities such as a bean bag toss game or a spinning wheel with prizes as icebreakers so attendees could chat.
QIFVLS set up a stall and asked age-appropriate questions in exchange for goodie bags. Following the theme of this year: ‘Every conversation matters’, we decided to ask questions that would encourage discussions i.e. “What’s your favourite fruit?” and “If you could change any rule at home, which rule would you change?”. The Police Liaison Officers who serviced the Logan area were seen participating in a little soccer game with the kids in the park’s centre.
Attendees even heard speeches from kids who bravely got up to speak on topics they were passionate about. The general feedback back from the community was that the Fun Day was a success with all participants and services enjoying the day.
Our Townsville team had a fantastic time connecting with students through an interactive activity that encouraged them to identify the traits of healthy versus unhealthy relationships. It’s all about sparking important conversations early, empowering young people with the knowledge to build respectful and supportive relationships.
It’s been an incredibly busy month for QIFVLS’ CEO Wynetta Dewis and Principal Legal Officer Thelma Schwartz who have had back-to-back commitments and conferences across Australia and New Zealand. Wynetta was joined by QIFVLS’ Chairman Adrian Geary at The Hague in the Netherlands, where they attended the International Live Case Study .
International Live Case Study – The Hague, Netherlands
QIFVLS Chair Adrian Geary and CEO Wynetta Dewis were a part of a contingent invited to participate in a week-long program with the Netherlands School for Public Administration (NSOB) to observe Dutch practices focussing on governance and leadership in climate change and social impacts. The visit included speaking to Dutch leaders in various roles, such as senior public officials, policy makers, front-line staff and civil society influences and visited several live case studies.
This was a remarkable opportunity – the study has caused me to reflect on my leadership practices and with the learnings obtained, adapt them in to my role and areas of influence – Wynetta Dewis, CEO
First Nations Advocates Against Family Violence (FNAAFV) Forum
QIFVLS’ CEO Wynetta Dewis and PLO Thelma Schwartz attended a 2-day conference in Port Lincoln, SA, that brought together family violence prevention legal services members from across Australia. It was an opportunity to strategise, reconnect and empower one another in the vital work that we each do in supporting First Nations sufferers of DFSV. As part of the conference, members received an online address from Minister Rishworth and had an opportunity to hear from Social Justice Commissioner Katie Kiss who attended in person.
The forum also held its inaugural FNAAFV AGM, with QIFVLS CEO Wynetta Dewis voted in as Chair of the Board and Phee Clarke voted in as Deputy Chair.
Indigenous Wellbeing Conference
The Indigenous Wellbeing Conference celebrates Indigenous community, culture and identity to help advance social and emotional wellbeing for all First Nations Australian, Māori and Pacific Islander people.
The conference highlighted the importance of connection to country, culture, spirituality and ancestry and the roles they play in well-being. Now in its fourth year, the conference brought together Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples to conceptualise and strategise solutions to the most important wellbeing needs of First Nations people from across the region.
Wynetta and Thelma were delighted to be invited to speak at the conference, and to present how QIFVLS works differently compared to other communities.
QIFVLS is proud to deliver essential legal and non-legal services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across Queensland. Whether it’s arriving by car, by plane or even by ferry, our team are on the ground in some of the state’s most remote communities.
OCM: First of all congratulations Thelma on celebrating 25 years in the legal profession. Back in 1999, did you expect to see yourself in the position that you are now?
Thelma: No, to be honest, I thought that after 25 years, I would be an equity partner in a private law firm, and I thought that I would hit that mark at 20 years, post admission experience.
OCM: So you had quite a clear vision for yourself?
Thelma: That’s correct. After, I finished my articles of clerkship, and having spent a year as a Supreme Court Justices Associate, my vision at that time was in commercial litigation and to be an equity partner.
My judge was very passionate about the practice of criminal law. He had come from a practice as a prosecutor and was one of the last district court judges in Hong Kong under the British rule. He left Kong Kong and moved to the Northern Territory where he was appointed a Supreme Court Justice. I was very lucky to be his Second Associate. With his passion for criminal law, he had always hoped that I would turn out to be a prosecutor. I said, If I ever went into crime, I wouldn’t prosecute but I would defend people. I told him I wanted to go into commercial litigation, because that’s what being a ‘true lawyer’ meant. I wanted to litigate commercially, and he laughed and said: ‘You’re going to go into crime’, and those were wise words. I was working here in Cairns at Miller Harris when I got the news that he’d passed from cancer, which was very depressing. He was a wonderful mentor and guide for me.
OCM: Where did it all start for you, Thelma? Tell us a little about your upbringing.
Thelma: I was born in Madang, which is a coastal town in Papua New Guinea, where my father’s people had settled. My family on my father’s side traced their lineage to Emma Coe or Emma Forsythe, as she was known in the literature. Her moniker is “Queen Emma of Samoa”. She was a German Samoan and back in the 1800s just decided to see the world. Her journey from Samoa took her to Papua New Guinea and to Rabaul where, as a young woman, she decided: ‘I’m going to set up coffee plantations here’. And she did!
OCM: That would have been seen as very radical at the time.
Thelma: It was, and she did it her way. The stories of her in our family are of someone who was exceptionally strong-willed and exceptionally business-minded. She built an astonishing empire before the commencement of World War One. We had a lot of Germans in the Pacific, and particularly in Papua New Guinea in those trading days, and this is where my father’s family all stemmed from.
Eventually the family, with my Great Granny Caroline, moved from Rabaul to Kakar Island and settled in Madang. As it runs in the family, Granny was also a very strong willed woman who ended up having three husbands and ran a cook house. She was renowned throughout the regions, with British, German and Australians all coming to eat there. And she was doing all that whilst also raising her children, which is also unheard of at that time.
OCM: There’s a bit of a renegade streak running through your family!
Thelma: Correct, with exceptionally strong willed women. That’s on my dad’s side, and then on my mother’s side, we have the people who have lived and come from, in our lore, the Salt Water. We trace our lineage through the Pacific: Samoa, Fiji and through ancestors from the Torres Strait. We were trading with the Malay fishermen all the way right up into Guam, so it’s a journey through the Pacific into Micronesia Melanesia.
OCM: Do find yourself identifying with one group within your lineage more so than another?
Thelma: I find it very difficult and don’t claim to be just one, because I belong to many, just like the ebb and flow of the sea. We’ve intermarried into local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families in our regions, including in Bamaga and the Torres and WA, and because my dad’s family size was eight, my mum’s a total of 13, we’re talking about big families and kin connections all over the place.
OCM: It’s a pretty rich tapestry.
Thelma: It certainly is. Some of the old ladies have a bit of a giggle and say, ‘Oh, you’re just a fruit salad, but you’re our fruit salad’. This is a journey of my people, so I don’t fit anywhere particular, and anyway, I very much like the seafaring aspect of traversing that sea. That’s part of the journey of who I am.
OCM: What about your family?
Thelma: I have two younger sisters and no brothers. My 23 year old son Gerard is the first boy in our family, and through cultural practices, is seen as my mother’s son because she never had a son. Our land is on my mother’s line because, culturally, it’s matrilineal, so all of the land allocation and knowledge sits with the mother and her firstborn daughter. When my grandmother, When my grandmother, Labunosi (also known as Angela or her nickname ‘Dozer’ – as in bulldozer) passed away, that legacy went to my mother as her first born daughter. That legacy is also physically characterised by a Bagi – a type of shell that’s traded as currency in the Pacific. There is a special Bagi necklace worn by the female leaders of our group, including my mother. Her Bagi is at home and when my mother passes, it will go to me. That means I will also inherit cultural obligations and responsibilities at home in my village Gogowale on the island of Sideai in Milne Bay province. Milne Bay should be known to people in Australia as it was here that the great sea battles were fought in World War 2.
I also have a tribal name that people know me by when I go home. Our Clan is Gimo – which means owl. When I’m there, I’m not Thelma, they’ll call me Sinebeau – a name that’s been given to me by my great, great grandmother. Her name was Hidiwamo, and she had passed before I was born. Her husband, my great, great grandfather, is my connection to the Pacific. His name was Tuitalele. Men are very important in our culture. My grandfather, my Bubu Bada, Mazzeppa Bacca, was the very last of our traditional dugong hunters, even though the dugong is one of our totems on my female side. The traditional hunters understood which wood was best suited for boat building, or for making a particular type of spear and the type of vine to make the rope from which to hunt and kill dugongs. Theirs was amongst of the very last dugong kills in that area, after which grandfather decided to make the rule that dugongs were not going to be killed anymore.
Another fascinating thing about my grandfather was that when he was only 18, he served as a Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel to the American Marines in New Guinea during World War Two. Milne Bay saw some of the fiercest battles in the region, and they ferried injured troops in the bottom of their dugout canoes. They would lay injured soldiers at the bottom of the canoe and then place yams, taros and everything else on top to hide them.
My grandfather was an amazing old man. I describe him as Ernest Hemingway’s vision when he was writing The Old Man and the Sea. He was one of the very last of the people that Australian’s might call a witch doctor or a medicine man. He understood nature, things from the forest, how to make people better. He could speak to the winds and to the sea. He navigated without a compass, and instead read the stars, the moon and the tides. He was fearless with a heart of gold and mind full of old knowledge – our old ways connected to the sea, the land, the skies and the forests.
OCM: It seems a great loss that his stories were never written down and recorded for posterity.
Thelma: That’s probably a demonstration of the our loss of culture, because a lot of those stories that were held by our old people were never written down. When Christianity arrived there was a shame element to preserving our culture. I don’t talk my mother’s language, and that was because of how I was brought up. I grew up in a very violent household. My father did not want us knowing my mother’s culture, and we weren’t allowed to speak the language or to have a connection to my mother’s family.
OCM: Do you think that your upbringing planted the seed for a career in law and specifically in domestic violence?
Thelma: With my mother’s people we’ve always played a role in community policing, community courts, where we’ve convened these. My Uncle David at home is a community police officer. But I think, to answer your question, I never wanted to practice in domestic and family violence as a lawyer. I was so traumatised by it. However, my very first job as a lawyer was, ironically, as a domestic violence help lawyer with a Community Legal Centre in Darwin. I only lasted three months, and that was because I was only 21 and had just come out of my law degree. My law degree was the precipice for my mum and dad’s marriage ending because I had confronted my father. There had been an argument between my parents that was quite physical, and I had to stand between him and my mum and said: ‘That’s it, enough is enough. If you assault her, I will report you’. Everything changed after that day for my family and I. A couple of months later, I was then admitted before my old Judge Bailey in Alice Springs where I had completed my articles of clerkship.
I never wanted to come into DV law practice. When I started, I said to myself: ‘Hell no, I can’t do DV, it’s too raw for me’. So I went into commercial litigation and thought: ‘This is great! I’m making money. I’m interpreting words. I don’t need to think about it emotionally. I’m comfortable working in area that is quite cold and analytical’. And I was very good at it.
I developed a practice in primarily personal injuries and had a fast growing practice with insurance companies. I originally started in Darwin and later continued it here in Queensland. I really enjoyed the work, but my passion for commercial litigation was in bankruptcy, liquidation and receivership. Insolvency was something I enjoyed – it was cold and analytical. I didn’t have to feel anything. I was just looking at unwinding a company and ensuring that the liquidators got paid. But after seven and a half years of this work, I burnt out. I felt that I wasn’t achieving anything, other than making my partners richer.
OCM: Where was the turning point for you?
Thelma: That was when I was at Miller Harris, here in Cairns. I was doing a lot of work with insurance companies in personal injuries cases, and I started to realise that I was really playing a game, and not achieving justice and purpose. I’m acting for an insurance company, with a lot of money in my war chest, compared to someone who’s injured, who doesn’t have a lot of funds, and who’s normally self-represented. I found myself thinking: ‘This can’t be justice. I didn’t sign up to become a lawyer for this’.
OCM: And it was the justice perspective that made you start to re-evaluate?
Thelma: I think it did. When I was little and growing up in Madang we had a satellite TV, and the one program that I always watched was this show about a lawyer, called Rumpole of the Bailey, and I wanted to be like him. I wanted to have the ability to speak up for others and to have that level of respect and to change people’s lives for the better. And, after practising as lawyer for all these years, I realised that’s what I still wanted.
So I left MilIer Harris and had taken a couple of months out when I saw an ad in the local Cairns newspaper recruiting for a criminal lawyer at ATSILS. I rang my old judge in Darwin, and he had a big laugh, and he said: ‘Thelma, I told you you’d be coming back in a Criminal Law. Your heart and your soul never belonged in commercial’.
I spent almost ten years with ATSILS as a criminal defence lawyer, defending men, women and children in all of the Courts in Far North Queensland. I also worked in setting up the Queensland Indigenous alcohol diversionary program (QIADP) scheme here in Cairns as well as the Murri Court with Magistrate Trevor Black. There were a lot of initiatives that I worked on and supported in Far North Queensland, which I still remain very proud of.
I appeared in the District Court, in the Supreme Court, and the Queensland Court of Appeal. I also briefed and instructed Counsel in a wide range of cases, including murder trials. I represented the Aurukun Nine in the Queensland Court of Appeal, which shone a spotlight on the absolute level of despair and disadvantage, and the lack of service provision in that community, which forced the Queensland Government to actually look at servicing our remote communities differently and investing funds into community.
I represented Raina Thaiday (aka Mersene Warrior) – the woman who murdered her eight children in Murray Street, Cairns. I managed this case very strategically. Matters were held with minimal media being presence in court and I structured to get her into the Mental Health Court where she was ultimately determined to be of an unsound mind at the time that the murders were committed. She’s now in Waco psychiatric facility.
OCM: So what finally brought you to QIFVLS?
Thelma: I had been with ATSILS a long time and think I was just getting stale. I had that same moment again, like I had when I finished in commercial litigation, that I didn’t feel like I was achieving anything because I’m seeing the same family members coming through court. I’m dealing with the grandparents, their children, and now their grandchildren, and then great grandchildren.
It dawned on me that all I was doing was feeding the system, and I didn’t feel like I was affecting justice and breaking cycles. I was feeling frustrated with the criminal justice system. There were no behavioural change programs to effectively break offending patterns. Even when they’re sentenced, there is not adequate access to programs in an early enough time to stop the offending behaviour. And I had a very big practice. I represented a lot of men who used violence against women.
It was during this time of professional self-reflection that I saw an ad from QIFVLS, looking for a principal lawyer. So I did the interview, and I remember Wynetta on the panel with our former CEO, and I’m like: ‘Okay, this sounds interesting. I’m excited”.
OCM: In your 25 years in law, what is the biggest shift that you’ve seen in domestic and family violence law?
Thelma: When I first started out, the practice of community lawyering, particularly supporting victims of domestic and family violence, was shunned. There were perceptions that you’d need to be a burnt out hippie to be representing those types of clients. It wasn’t seen as real lawyering. There were some really negative stereotypes. I recall one case at my criminal law practice in Darwin, where the sitting Magistrate at the time (who was later removed from the Bench) inferred that my client, who was a victim of domestic violence, was ‘gilding the lily’. I remember saying: ‘Well, I don’t understand how you’ve come to that conclusion when there’s no evidence of it, Your Honour’. That was quite tense, given I was only a junior practitioner at the time.
What I have seen over those 25 years is a major shift away from domestic and family violence being viewed as a private or family matter. It’s now accepted as a criminal law matter and that gender-based violence is everyone’s business. And that, in itself, has changed community views on support for victim survivors.
OCM: On your occasional time off, how do you relax?
Thelma: In my garden – I’m trying to get into fruit and veggie production. I’m a bit of a movie fiend and I try to spend time with my boy, Gerard. He’s the only child, and over the years he’s been my little travelling companion everywhere. He’s a grown-up man now and he’s got his own life. But when he was little, we’d always be on the road together, just sightseeing or out on the reef. I’m passionate about my rugby league, Gerard plays Reserve Grade for the Kangaroos, so when I’m not travelling, I’m down watching him train or at his games. I’m also a die-hard Rabbitohs fan. And from going to school in PNG, I’m even a Blues Supporter!
OCM: A Blues supporter in FNQ?
Thelma: That’s probably the rebellion aspect in me… my granny’s coming out strong!
When an individual or organisation makes a tax deductible donation to QIFVLS, they can be confident that their funds are going towards making a tangible difference to the safety and welfare of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experiencing or at risk of domestic and family violence.
Our team are grateful for all donations that help our not-for-profit organisation to continue offering this critical service. Donations of $1,000 or more help fund outreach services to some of Queensland’s most remote ATSI communities.
Are you in search of a rewarding profession that will take you on journeys through the breathtaking landscapes of Queensland? One that promises not only career advancement and skill enhancement, but also attractive perks, substantial travel allowances, and one-of-a-kind professional adventures? Are you drawn to a career that enables you to make a positive difference in the lives of others?
Look no further – your new career awaits you! At QIFVLS, we are dedicated to combating Family and Domestic Violence within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities. Our methods encompass education, advocacy, legal reform, court support, and casework assistance. By focusing on early intervention and prevention, our aim is to empower individuals impacted by Family Violence to regain control over their lives. We are in search of outstanding and dynamic individuals who can join us in achieving this mission.
If you envision yourself fitting into this scenario, we encourage you to see what’s available here.
