A Legacy of Leadership
Sophie Quick, Editor
Magistrate Abigail Burchill (1990) comes from a long line of leaders in the Yorta Yorta community and she’s blazed her own trail in the law.
Sunday 1 December 2024
It wasn’t easy for Abigail Burchill to leave her family behind in Mooroopna, near Shepparton, to come to Ormond in 1990. But the young student quickly found an auspicious connection between the community she was joining and the community that had formed her.‘The Ormond colours are the same as the colours of the Aboriginal flag,’ she says. ‘I saw that as a good sign.’Those first few months at College were difficult for the young Yorta Yorta and Dja Dja Wurrung woman. Family and community are important to her, and the separation was tough.Now at the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria, Burchill is from a family of prominent Aboriginal leaders. Her great-great grandfather, Thomas Shadrach James, was the polymath teacher to William Cooper, Douglas Nicholls and other figures behind the founding of the Australian Aborigines’ League in the 1930s – recognised as a key step to the historic 1967 Indigenous referendum. Cooper is Burchill’s great-great uncle.‘They achieved enormous things for our people,’ Burchill says. ‘My background was one where education was valued and encouraged.’Community pride and the emphasis on education could not have been more important for Burchill because, she says, racism was rife in her town and at her school.‘Mooroopna High School was one of the most disadvantaged schools in the state ... when I told teachers I wanted to become a lawyer, they suggested becoming a legal secretary instead.’But with hard work and the persistent advocacy of her mother, Burchill was accepted with a scholarship into the University of Melbourne and into Ormond College.‘I felt really intimidated by Melbourne University and I know other Aboriginal students did too.’But she found a supportive community at Ormond College.‘What I found [at college] was a warm, intellectually encouraging environment.’Burchill didn’t have much time for sport or socialising during her College years. For the most part, she says, her head was deep in the books.‘I felt I had a lot of catching up to do. I didn’t have any family connections in the law. If I was going to succeed, I had to concentrate on academic progress.’After graduating, Burchill went on to enjoy a varied career in the law – practising in both Sydney and Melbourne; in prosecution and in defence – on a wide range of matters, from drug importation and Medicare fraud to murder trials. She went to the Bar in 2011.‘I’ve seen how precarious it is – to get into the legal profession but also to stay in it!’ Burchill says. ‘There’s a lot of hard work, but luck as well. And there have been key people who really pushed me; people who had more confidence in me than I had in myself.’Despite the challenges, Burchill has consistently taken on extra commitments, serving terms as director of Aboriginal Housing Victoria and as president of Tarwirri, the Indigenous Law Students and Lawyers Association of Victoria.In 2017, Burchill was appointed to the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria. She is only the second Indigenous woman to become a magistrate in the state’s history. Since her appointment, Burchill has served both the mainstream court and Koori Court.‘It’s a privilege to sit as a magistrate,’ she says.A lot of the matters that come before Burchill involve traumatic circumstances. But Burchill sees an opportunity, in her work, to intervene in people’s lives in positive, thoughtful ways.‘It’s a really important part of rehabilitation, and of healing, to acknowledge what has happened to a person – in their life; or in one incident – in a way that is meaningful,’ she says. ‘It can be life-changing. I’ve learned to try to slow things down, to talk with human language about human things. It’s hard, but when you get it right, that’s a huge achievement.’ First Published in New & Old Magazine | Issue No. 104 December 2024
There’s a lot of hard work, but luck as well. And there have been key people who really pushed me; people who had more confidence in me than I had in myself.
