IHHP | NAAJA - Lajamanu Kurdiji Law and Justice Group

In August 2015, Indigenous Hip Hop Projects (‘IHHP’) teamed up with the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency’s (‘NAAJA’) legal education team to visit Lajamanu for a week-long intensive workshop to create this powerful short film on the ‘Kurdiji’ Law and Justice Group. For this project we were fortunate to be guided by members of the Lajamanu Kurdiji Law and Justice Group. The project brings together contributions from the old and the new. The old law men and women have taught and guided their community through both traditional law and contemporary issues. IHHP and NAAJA worked with both old and young people to explore legal themes such as respectful relationships, interacting well with police, domestic violence, resisting peer pressure and joint criminal enterprise. We would also like to thank WYDAC (Mt Theo) for their generous contributions, including the providing their recording studio. We would also like to thank the Warnayaka Arts Centre, the Lajamanu School, the Central Desert Regional Council and the Central Land Council for their kind support. The Kurdiji was first formed in 1999 with the assistance of the then Department of Aboriginal Affairs. The NAAJA legal education team commenced work with the Kurdiji in 2009 when Kurdiji members contacted NAAJA to reinvigorate their group after it was defunded. Since then NAAJA has met with the group before every court to discuss community safety issues, consider the court list and write reports for selected upcoming matters providing the members’ views on the offending, the offender and suggested rehabilitation, deterrence and denunciation.