Indigenous place name plaques
In 2021, the firm updated our letterhead, all staff’s email signatures and the Arnold Bloch Leibler website to include the Indigenous place names of our two office locations, Wurundjeri and Eora country. A priority for 2022 was to expand on this work to include Indigenous place names in Arnold Bloch Leibler branding. One suggestion the AISN received was to install permanent plaques in the reception areas of the Melbourne and Sydney offices that provide the Indigenous place names of their respective locations.
The AISN did not address this priority in 2023. It has been included as a priority for 2024.
Cultural awareness training
Arnold Bloch Leibler has continued to ensure our current Indigenous cultural awareness training program is provided to staff, including as part of the firm’s Supervised Legal Training program for law graduates.
In 2023, one session of cultural awareness training was conducted in Melbourne as part of the 2023 graduate cohort’s Supervised Legal Training. A total of 20 graduates participated in the session. Arnold Bloch Leibler intends to offer another cultural awareness training session in early 2024 for all staff, including the graduate cohort in Sydney.
As at the date of writing, 61% of legal staff at Arnold Bloch Leibler have completed cultural awareness training, which includes 14% of Partners.
The program has to date been facilitated by Leon EGAN of Bundyi Giilang Indigenous Education Consulting. Leon is a Wiradjuri, Yorta Yorta, Bangerang and Gundiitjmara man and an Indigenous education professional and mentor. Leon is highly respected and has a wealth of experience in the sporting, corporate, not-for-profit and community sectors.
A key priority of the AISN in 2023 was to “further strengthen and expand on the formal Indigenous cultural awareness training program, including considering alternative formats and sessions and perspectives”. We considered offering training to Partners and a follow up session to staff who had completed the first session, but have not progressed with those suggestions to date. Those suggestions have been included as priorities for 2024.
Cultural awareness training testimonial
Law Graduate Samuel Clarke provided the following reflection on the cultural awareness training:
“Last month, Arnold Bloch Leibler’s 2023 graduate cohort had the privilege of attending Cultural Awareness Training with Bundyi Giilang Indigenous Education Consulting. The session was run by Leon EGAN, who is the founder and lead facilitator at Bundyi Gillang (“share our / my story”), and a proud Wiradjuri, Yorta Yorta, Bangerang and Gunditjamara man. Over the course of the day, Leon provided us with a deeply personal and nuanced account of First Nations culture, knowledge and identity, and of the continuing impacts of the Australia’s history of colonisation and government policy on this continent.
We are very grateful to Leon for sharing his knowledge and stories with us.
Reflecting on the defeat of the Referendum, I think it is clear that many Australians simply have not had any meaningful exposure to these cultures and histories. Certainly, my own primary education and high school education provided no meaningful engagement with the impacts of the establishment of modern Australia on First Nations Peoples. We know that the authors of the Uluru Statement from the Heart were acutely aware of this fact, and the need for truth-telling about our shared history.
In lieu of national truth-telling, we are privileged to have heard first-hand accounts of these matters from Leon. As law graduates, and as members of our own families, communities and networks, I hope we can focus our efforts on elevating truth telling processes and sharing the knowledge we have acquired about Australian history, and walk with First Nations Peoples to produce a more mature and honest public discourse around the need for reconciliation.”