Judge Nathan Jarro, who identifies as Ghangalu on his father’s side and Bidjara on his mother’s side, was the state’s only Indigenous judge when he was appointed to the District Court in 2018.
Judge Jarro had spent 14 years at the bar, after practising as a solicitor, and held appointments to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (2009), the Mental Health Review Tribunal (2009) and the Aboriginal Land Tribunal (2015).
He shared his insights for a NAIDOC Week edition of The Callover.
You were born in Brisbane and raised in Brisbane. How have you maintained your connection to both sets of country?
So Mum and Dad, whenever we were – when I say we, I’m talking about my two brothers, I’m the middle child – whenever we were young, every Christmas opportunity, Dad and Mum would take us back to Woorabinda and spend time with extended family. And I should also say that when we’d spend time in Woorabinda, we’d go on country to visit various places.
And then we’d drive back, and on the way back, would sometimes stop at Cherbourg, for example, where my mum’s family’s from. So I’ve got extended family in Cherbourg as well. So we had the opportunity when we were young to acknowledge our culture, our cultural identity and to be encouraged to be proud of who we were, as young indigenous boys.
You decided to study a Bachelor of Law and a Bachelor of Business at CU. What inspired you to pursue a career in the law?
The humanities side of the law was what appealed to me when I was at school. I hated doing maths and science, and that never really clicked with me. Whereas, legal studies, for example, history, those two subjects that were my favourite subjects at high school and that prompted me to consider doing law. There was no one else in my family who had studied law.
And after graduating from university in 1999, you became Justice Martin Moynihan’s associate. What did you learn from a year as his associate?
First and foremost, it’s about going to court and seeing the advocates, representing the clients. I always had from about grade 10 the desire to go to the bar and having the opportunity to sit with Justice Moynihan to be his associate for that 12 months, allowed me to obtain a very, good insight into why court practice and procedure occurs.
It was a great opportunity as well, because, in fact, many of my friends today, my close friends, (are) lawyers with whom I had the opportunity of meeting back then. I saw routinely many barristers at the time who are now judges. And it feels like a very small, close community.
You were on the Children’s Services Tribunal. You were also on QCAT and the Mental Health Tribunal. How do you think your time on those tribunals prepared you for judicial office?
One of the aspects with being on a tribunal is the ability to make decisions quickly and often. At times, those decisions were made on the day. And so that enabled and put me in good stead, I thought, in terms of putting in an expression of interest for my role as a District Court judge. So that, and it also had the ability, of course, to have people come before you in order to agitate their disputes.
And your role as the decision maker is to determine and decide those disputes when the parties are unable to do it themselves. So it’s about the people coming before you to seek a result, as well as the ability to turn that result around quickly. I thought, that gave me a good grounding, a foundational grounding in order to, do my job on the bench.
When did the aspiration arise to go to the bench?
I’d been at the bar for 14 years … I loved it and I would have still loved doing what I was doing. But if the thought came across my mind that if I wanted to do something different, what would I be doing? It’s not so much a midlife crisis, but it was a situation where I thought, ‘well, what else could I be doing? What else would I enjoy doing?’. And so …I’m going to apply to become a District Court judge.
I knew I didn’t have the capabilities whatsoever to put in an application to become a Supreme Court judge…
It’s an extremely competitive position to go for. Lots of people would put in an expression of interest. And the encouraging thing for me was that they would also consider, in addition to skill, a skill set, that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are encouraged to apply. That was similar to the job, the roles that I got in not only on the Children’s Services Tribunal, then later QCAT, but also the Mental Health Review Tribunal.
So I put in an expression of interest for I role … there were three vacancies on the District Court. And I thought if the government would take a chance of appointing an indigenous person, because there are three roles that are up for grabs, that might be my chance. And I was lucky enough to get the call from the Attorney-General at the time to offer me a job.
I suppose you were acutely aware of being the first person of Aboriginal heritage to be appointed to that position in Queensland when you were appointed on the 26th of March, 2018. Did you feel the significance, not just for yourself, but for the broader community?
I didn’t realise until after the announcement when I was getting all of these, wishes and congratulations …There was some sort of an extra layer or an extra component added to the appointment.
It’s important that particularly you do your job based on your skill set … But it just adds a different, a slightly different and elevated dynamic to it, perhaps.
What do you think we can do as a profession to encourage more indigenous students, to pursue a career in the law?
We’re doing a great job. And we’ve been doing a great job for the last five years … we are seeing more indigenous graduates, law graduates, come through.
When I was going through and I started act in 1995, there were two indigenous students, and it’s just great to see that change, that significant increase in the student population. It’s also great to see that when those students graduate, they’re exposed to opportunities, including associateships. I’ve had two indigenous associates over the seven years that I’ve been on the bench, and in the seven years that I’ve been on the bench, I’ve also seen at least I’d say, five or six other indigenous people who are associates with other judges, and they’re the judges in the Superior Court.
I think we’re on the right track because we’re seeing numbers come through, and that’s the important thing. The more people who are out there practising, the more diversity, and the better it is for our system of law.
The list of your extracurricular activities is extensive. It includes acting as a director of the Queensland Theatre Company and the National Indigenous Television Service, as a member of the editorial board of the Indigenous Law Bulletin, as President of the Indigenous Lawyers Association of Queensland, and on the Council of QUT. What have you learned from engaging in these roles, and what do you hope to achieve by them?
Engagement with not only your fellow board members and seeing their backgrounds, what brought them to the board table, but also engagement with audiences, the public and seeing what the public loves, particularly from an arts-related perspective. So they’re the things that I’ve learned, of course, about due diligence, corporate governance, all of those legalistic things, but also the ability to ensure that we appreciate the world we live in.
This year’s NAIDOC Week theme is The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy. How does that theme resonate with you?
It resonates a lot with me, and that’s because as I’m getting older, it’s important for me to see, and it is encouraging for me to see, these younger people come through. I didn’t think I’d get to a stage where I’m saying and reflecting upon that, because I always thought that I was young. But it is seeing more indigenous people come through and become extremely prominent within the community.
What of advice you would give your younger self as you commence your legal career?
Take a moment to pause. Smell the roses … Enjoy the moment. And just don’t look too forward into the future.
Listen to this episode of The Callover.
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