What changes when students learn law through First Nations perspectives?
This question reaches to the foundations of legal education, whose laws are recognised, how legal knowledge is understood, and what it means to study law in a country with enduring Indigenous legal traditions.
At the 2026 Wingarra Djuraliyin Public Lecture on Indigenous Peoples and Law, Professor Marcia Langton AO challenged audiences to look beyond the assumption that Indigenous laws are remnants of the past; rather, they continue to be an essential part of our national narrative. Notwithstanding the challenges Indigenous laws encounter through colonisation, a key point was the role of place in understanding our responsibilities to Country.
In her lecture, Indigenous Systems of Law, Property, Personhood, and the Legacy, Professor Langton explored the sophisticated legal systems through which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have governed relationships with land, waters and sky Country, solved problems, regulated behaviour, transmitted knowledge and maintained responsibilities across generations. These are topics also explored in her book, ‘Law - The Way of Ancestors’, co-authored with Professor Aaron Corn.
“To study them is not to indulge in romanticism or nostalgia,” Professor Langton said. “It is to engage with one of the world's longest continuous legal traditions.”
Her message was clear, understanding Indigenous law requires more than acknowledging its existence. It requires engaging seriously with its principles, authority and continuing practice.
“What stood out to me was Marcia’s explanation of property as relational. It’s a principle law students are familiar with, yet one that can be overlooked in legal practice. The depth of this understanding in First Nations law is remarkable, Country is connected to significant moments in our lives and histories, from birth and death to ceremony, welcome and the sharing of sacred knowledge. These systems of knowledge have been continually tested, adapted, refined and passed down through generations.
“It’s an important reminder that First Nations legal systems were not ‘uncivilised’ simply because they did not conform to colonial standards. Cultural difference should never be a justification for suppressing another culture. I deeply appreciated Marcia sharing her work to ensure these injustices are not forgotten.” Gwen Rumbel, Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Science (Psychology).
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2026 Wingarra Djuraliyin: Public Lecture on Indigenous Peoples and Law
Professor Langton examined how Australian legal discourse historically denied the existence of Indigenous legal systems, with profound consequences for the recognition of rights and relationships to Country. Professor Langton traced the implications of this history through landmark native title decisions, including Wik and Mabo v Queensland (No 2), among other leading cases, and explored the limitations of interpreting Indigenous relationships with land solely through conventional Western concepts of property.
In many Indigenous legal systems, she explained, property cannot be understood simply as ownership of a discrete parcel of land. It encompasses relationships between people, Ancestors, place and future generations, carrying responsibilities as well as rights. This broader conceptualisation of law does not detract, but adds to, our ability to solve problems and build relationships and find resolutions.
“Property involves rights but also duties. Entitlements but also obligations and more than possession. Stewardship and care are primary duties,” Professor Langton said.
Her lecture also explored how law is transmitted through stories, Ancestors, songs, dances, ceremonies and knowledge of the natural world. Kinship structures, life (and death) cycles, marriage rules, children's rights and the governance of resources are interconnected with Indigenous systems of knowledge that continue to shape community life.
These perspectives invite students to examine the assumptions underpinning familiar legal concepts and consider how different legal traditions organise rights, responsibilities and relationships.
For law students, introduction to these ideas offers not simply an opportunity to learn about another legal tradition. It is an invitation to think more critically about the co-existence of Western and Indigenous legal systems, the implication for future practice and the scope and cultural specificity of law in modern society.
Professor Langton’s 2026 Wingarra Djuraliyin lecture underscores the immense value of the place-based learning and teaching of law, including Ngara, in which we are engaged at Sydney Law School
Professor Fleur Johns
Dean of Sydney Law School
The significance of the lecture extends beyond a single evening. It reflects and affirms a broader transformation underway at Sydney Law School to embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges and perspectives throughout legal education.
In 2025, as part of a suite of changes introduced after a 3-year curriculum review, the School began formally integrating Ngara into its Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and Juris Doctor (JD) programs as a distinct course learning outcome. Derived from a Gadi word meaning “listen, hear, think”, Ngara establishes an expectation that graduates understand Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples' knowledges and perspectives, including the ongoing effects of colonisation, and can reflect on law’s cultural specificity.
Ngara is being embedded across compulsory units rather than confined to a single subject. Eight of the 17 compulsory units in the LLB and JD programs have incorporated teaching aimed at this learning outcome, spanning areas including criminal law, public law, legal ethics, land law and public international law. This has also expanded into existing electives such as Intellectual Property, as well as new electives on offer to students who seek to examine First Nations Advocacy on a deeper level.
This approach invites educators to consider how First Nations scholarship, legal perspectives and lived experiences can inform the materials students study, the questions they investigate, and the ways they assess and solve legal problems.
It also challenges students to consider the relationship between Indigenous legal systems and Australian law as a continuing and complex reality, rather than treating Indigenous law as a historical prelude to the contemporary legal system.
Professor Teela Reid, Associate Dean (Indigenous Strategy and Services), reflected on this connection following Professor Langton's lecture. The landmark judgments discussed throughout the evening, she observed, were the culmination of decades of advocacy, often by people who did not live to see the final decisions by the High Court in Australia. Emphasising the important work of lawyers to utilise the law effectively and engage ethically with community.
Professor Reid highlighted the need to integrate these perspectives not only into formal education and legal practice, but into everyday life, and to recognise the authority of First Nations Elders in sharing their knowledge. Reflecting on the stories of sky Country shared by her grandfather, Professor Reid also spoke about the importance of ensuring that Indigenous knowledges belong to the Indigenous community and must be engaged with in an ethics and practice of care.
Her reflection captured one of many purposes of Ngara: learning to listen, hear and think differently in the classroom must translate into the community.
It’s an important reminder that First Nations legal systems were not ‘uncivilised’ simply because they did not conform to colonial standards. Cultural difference should never be a justification for suppressing another culture.
Gwen Rumbel
Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Science (Psychology)
Embedding change across the curriculum
For Ngara ‘leads’ Louisa Di Bartolomeo, Associate Professors Louise Boon-Kuo and Fady Aoun, Sydney Law School academics supporting the embedding of Indigenous knowledges and perspectives, the work of curriculum transformation involves translating this commitment into students' everyday learning.
Louisa Di Bartolomeo, said: ‘Ngara is Sydney Law School’s institutional response to longstanding calls from First Nations communities and legal academics, higher education reviews, and national and state inquiries for professional legal education to meaningfully incorporate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ histories, knowledges, laws and perspectives. It is recognition of our responsibility as legal educators to ensure that Sydney Law School graduates have the knowledge and skills to fulfill their professional responsibilities and shape the potential for justice within the Australian legal system for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and individuals, who experience greater unmet legal need than any other community group in Australia and are the most incarcerated people in the world by population percentage.’
The curriculum renewal provides a structure for this work, encouraging academics to examine the legislative materials, case studies and legal principles through which students encounter the law. It also creates opportunities to engage with the historical and contemporary consequences of colonisation and the relationship between First Nations legal knowledge and Australian legal institutions.
The objective is not simply to add more content. It is to help students develop a deeper understanding of how law operates within particular cultural and historical contexts, and to prepare graduates to engage thoughtfully and ethically with the communities affected by legal decisions.
"Implementing Ngara across various law courses has been undertaken with considerable care, thoughtful reflection and for non-Indigenous persons Ngara ‘leads’ and academic staff, with a commitment to cultural humility," Associate Professor Fady Aoun said.
"Importantly, this work is guided by First Nations expertise and leadership, extensive stakeholder consultation, Ngara lead assistance, and an ongoing curation of learning materials.
"The end of semester collegiate debriefs known as the Ngara Dialogues have proved invaluable in advancing teaching and learning practices here. By sharing collective experiences, insights, and resources, Ngara’s meaningful integration throughout the law curriculum is both sustained and strengthened."
This work forms part of Sydney Law School's wider commitment to valuing Indigenous knowledges and perspectives and strengthening the education and professional capabilities of its graduates.
Ngara seeks to make this commitment part of the educational experience throughout the degree.
The Wingarra Djuraliyin lecture offered a powerful illustration of why this matters. By listening to First Nations legal scholars and knowledge holders, engaging critically with the history of Australian law and embedding Indigenous perspectives in compulsory learning, the School is working towards a legal education that better reflects the complexity of the country in which its graduates will practice.
As Professor Langton argued, the future of law in Australia will be richer and more intellectually honest when Indigenous law is recognised as a living relationship, rather than a relic of the past.
Sydney Law School Dean and Head of School, Professor Fleur Johns, observed after the event: “Professor Langton’s 2026 Wingarra Djuraliyin lecture underscores the immense value of the place-based learning and teaching of law, including Ngara, in which we are engaged at Sydney Law School. It also highlights the ambition and distinctiveness of the curricular transformations on which my dedicated colleagues have embarked, led by Professor Teela Reid, and the importance of approaching that work with openness and care, attending closely to the expert guidance and inspiration that Professor Langton so generously offered.”