A COURTROOM is not a place that immediately springs to mind when one thinks of a warm, welcoming environment.
But once a fortnight that is the exact vibe you can expect to find at the Swan Hill Magistrates’ Court when the doors of the Koori Court are thrown open to the Indigenous community.
A division of the Magistrates’ Court, Koori Court is a relatively new concept that sees Indigenous offenders sentenced in an informal atmosphere with the input of local elders, respected persons and family members.
It operates in only a handful of towns in Victoria and is aimed at tackling the over-representation of Indigenous people in prison.
If you ask Wamba Wamba elder Aunty Stephanie Charles, it could not be more successful here in Swan Hill.
She has been there since the very first local sittings five years ago and, of the hundreds of troubled souls that have taken a seat with her at the round-table, only a percentage have returned for a second go.
“We often do what I call the journey story,” she said.
“We talk about the negative stuff and then go to the other side and talk about the positive stuff.
“The kids always have an opportunity respond and it gives them a chance to build their self esteem.
“It’s always emotional. Because we have those family connections, [the elders] are able to say things like ‘I knew your mum or dad or grandfather — how do you think they’d feel seeing you sitting here today?’
“Things like that are so powerful. And because you are able to speak to them directly and really hammer them if you need to, it’s a shameful thing for them to have to come back.”
The former school teacher said it had been extremely heartening over the years to see many defendants completely turn their lives around after appearing in Koori Court.
“Often when they come in here they’ve lost that connection to their culture,” she said.
“Then later you hear about them doing wonderful things in the community.”
Born in Swan Hill, Aunty Stephanie feels a deep connection to the land on which she was raised and the Wamba Wamba language.
She is particularly proud that the local Koori Court was the first in Victoria to implement the local language into proceedings and to be teaching the language in local schools.
She herself started her education at the Moonacullah Mission Reserve near Deniliquin.
“Mum and dad were both Christian people,” she said.
“I remember very clearly a red brick house — it was the manager’s house — and we used to line up there every month for rations of tea, sugar, flour.
“We’d go out rabbiting and fishing and everything that was collected was shared amongst the mob.
“We had beautiful weatherboard homes — clean and comfortable.”
Around the time she reached grade three, Aunty Stephanie said the family was encouraged to move into Deniliquin for “better opportunities”.
“They built 12 brand new houses on the outskirts of town,” she said.
“It was hard — we went from a big family environment into something that was quite foreign.
“Going to school became quite a hassle… I started hearing words like ‘abo’ and ‘black’.
“I didn’t know what racism was until I started going to school in town.”
She recalls with a smile a few occasions of standing up for herself in the schoolyard in the following years.
After finishing school, Aunty Stephanie moved to Melbourne where she raised her two eldest daughters.
As her girls got older, the single mother decided to further her education and enroll at university.
In 1997 she graduated as a primary school teacher and, by that stage, had moved back to her beloved Swan Hill.
She taught at the local schools, worked as a Koori educator and became involved with several different local organisations.
Today she is chair of the Swan Hill Local Aboriginal Education Consultative Group, member of the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages and a member of the Swan Hill and Kerang Community Advisory Committee for Mallee District Aboriginal Services.
That’s on top of her commitment to the Koori Court and to her family, which includes seven children, 23 grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
A passionate footy fan, she barracks for Swan Hill in the local league.
“The Swan Hill footy club is like one big happy family.
“I love Swan Hill. It is my home, it’s where my family is. I could never move back to the city.”
