Unfortunately they have been treated like cattle before!!!!!!! ‘Like a Cattle Yard’: How Justice Is Delivered in Australia’s Bush Courts
In some remote Aboriginal communities, judges and lawyers arrive by plane and handle dozens of cases in a single day. Critics say language barriers and the rapid pace infringe on human rights.
A lawyer, Holly Fitzsimmons, speaking with a client, Brenda Melpi, in Wadeye, Australia.Credit...Matthew Abbott for The New York Times
By Livia Albeck-Ripka
Published Dec. 6, 2020Updated Dec. 7, 2020
WADEYE, Australia — After an hourlong flight over the ocher sands of northern Australia, the judge stepped off the plane and made her way to the makeshift courthouse, a single white-walled room next to a new $20 million police station ensconced in barbed wire.
Outside, more than a dozen Aboriginal defendants waited barefoot in the blistering heat. Most spoke little English. They would have only a few minutes with their lawyers, also newly arrived, before being called one by one to portable tables in the courtroom to face the judge, a woman wearing orange glasses and heels
