Indigenous place name plaques
In 2024, the Partners approved the installation of Indigenous place name plaques in the reception areas of each of the ABL Melbourne and Sydney offices. The co-chairs have engaged a First Nations supplier to procure these plaques. The design and placement of these plaques is being finalised with the aim to install these place names by early 2025.
Cultural awareness training
Arnold Bloch Leibler continues 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.
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.
In 2024, two cultural awareness training sessions were conducted in Melbourne and one session was conducted in Sydney. One session in Melbourne was provided for the 2024 law graduates as part of their Supervised Legal Training. The remaining session in Melbourne and the session in Sydney were open to all staff and partners. A total of 17 graduates and 24 staff participated in the training in 2024.
As at the date of writing, 68% of legal staff at Arnold Bloch Leibler have completed cultural awareness training, which includes 29% of Partners. This is an increase from 61% of legal staff and 14% of Partners in 2023.
A key priority of the AISN in 2024 was to “to continue to develop and expand cultural awareness training, including by implementing First Nations cultural awareness training for all Partners of Arnold Bloch Leibler”. We have increased the number of sessions rolled out in 2024 so that more staff and partners have had access to the training and the number of partners and staff who have undertaken the training continues to increase.
Cultural awareness training testimonial
Law Graduate Jeremy Brown provided the following reflection on the cultural awareness training:
“In 2024, Arnold Bloch Leibler’s graduate cohort had the privilege of attending Cultural Awareness Training with Bundyi Giilang Indigenous Education Consulting. The session was run by Leon Egan, a proud Wiradjuri, Yorta Yorta, Bangerang and Gunditjamara man, a friend of the Firm, and the founder and lead facilitator at Bundyi Gillang (“share our / my story”).
Over the course of the day, Leon guided us through his own experience as a First Nations man, engaging with us on questions of culture, knowledge, identity, lore, and the direct and indirect continuing effects of Australia’s history of colonisation. Leon’s experiences were eye-opening and at times haunting. I was deeply grateful to Leon for his commitment to sharing an earnest, unvarnished perspective of what it meant to him to be an Indigenous man living in Australia in 2024, particularly in the wake of the Referendum’s failure.
The program at its core was focussed on bringing people together to share honest reflections on a country that has a history marred by racism, a legacy that is yet to be reconciled and that continues to impact the lives of generations of Indigenous Australians. A fundamental pillar of the program was a message that truth-telling of this kind is necessary for Australia to move forwards – that truth-telling is a tool that allows Australians to engage with both their past and with generationally embedded trauma in a constructive fashion for the purpose of encouraging all Australians to live lives connected to the land on which we stand, and to seek solutions to issues of national significance.
Given the political headwinds that national truth-telling faces, we were privileged to have Leon among us for a day to share his story to us, and to grant us an insight into the world in which he has grown up. It is clear however, that we are all individually responsible for ensuring that we take up the Uluru Statement from the Heart’s invitation and commit to embracing the, at times, uncomfortable process of truth-telling and reconciliation. I share Leon’s optimism that our generation of leaders has the potential to push for impactful change, and to embrace the difficult process of beginning to repair Australia’s troubled history.”