Eastern Arrernte woman from Central Australia whose journey through law and justice has been guided by a deep sense of fairness and connection to community. With experience across multiple legal contexts, Tanya brings cultural knowledge and professional expertise together at Oonchiumpa, creating pathways for young people to strengthen identity while navigating complex systems.
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Relational web
My identity is grounded in belonging to Eastern Arrernte country from Emily Gap to Jesse Gap. Though my journey took me across Australia as my father worked in mining, Alice Springs remained our home base—the place we always returned to. These connections to place and family provide the foundation for understanding the young people we work with, recognizing that their sense of belonging forms the core of their capacity to navigate life's challenges.
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Ways I Hold & Share Knowledge
I share knowledge through stories that connect legal frameworks with cultural understanding, making complex systems accessible to young people and their families. Through mediation approaches that honor relationship and dialogue, I create spaces where different perspectives can be heard and respected. At Oonchiumpa, we demonstrate knowledge-sharing through practice—showing young people pathways to navigate contemporary challenges while maintaining cultural strength.
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Who I Walk For
I walk for young people who have been labeled and marginalized by systems that fail to see their potential and strength. I walk for families trying to navigate complex legal and social structures without the roadmaps others take for granted. I walk for communities seeking self-determination and the right to lead their own healing and development. I walk for those caught between worlds, helping them find balance and connection.
Exploring the intersection of legal systems, cultural knowledge, and community-led approaches to justice and wellbeing in Central Australia.
The following are themes that have been identified through conversation
Building connections that transcend transactional approaches, creating spaces where genuine understanding can flourish.
Translating between systems and communities to ensure young people can access support without sacrificing cultural identity.
Creating spaces for honest acknowledgment of historical and contemporary realities as the foundation for sustainable change.
Helping young people develop skills to navigate multiple cultural contexts while maintaining strong sense of identity.
Bringing human understanding to legal and institutional contexts that often reduce people to cases or problems.
Recognizing that effective approaches must be grounded in the specific cultural and geographical contexts of Central Australia.
Supporting communities to tell their own stories rather than being defined by external media representations.
Creating learning opportunities that honor cultural knowledge while building skills for diverse future possibilities.
I grew up with a strong sense of justice, though I couldn't have named it as such when I was younger. As an Eastern Arrernte woman whose family moved frequently due to my father's mining work, Alice Springs remained our constant—the place we always returned to, the landscape that shaped my understanding of belonging.
When it came time to apply for university, I set aside an offer from the Acting and Performing Arts school in Queensland to pursue law instead. I entered an Aboriginal pre-law program at the University of Western Australia, where I often felt out of place in the grandiose halls of the institution. I found community at the Aboriginal Student Center rather than in mainstream university spaces.
After completing my law degree, I became the first Indigenous associate at the Supreme Court of Victoria, where I worked across multiple legal areas including criminal, civil, tax, and corporate law. While in Melbourne, I was part of the Indigenous Lawyers Association that successfully challenged Andrew Bolt's racial vilification of Aboriginal people. Despite these professional achievements, a moment of clarity struck me one day on a Melbourne tram—I needed to return home to use my legal knowledge in service to my own community.
Upon returning to Alice Springs, I worked in private practice briefly before joining Aboriginal Legal Aid, where I combined community legal education with civil, family, and child protection casework. This role allowed me to teach people about their rights while addressing immediate legal needs. After five years, I moved to South Australia to be near my mother, becoming a Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner with a remarkable 95% success rate in mediations.
The journey through these diverse legal contexts eventually led to co-founding Oonchiumpa with Kristy, creating a space where our combined knowledge of legal systems and cultural protocols could support young people caught between worlds. This work represents the culmination of professional skills and cultural knowledge, allowing me to serve community in ways I never imagined during my law school days.
At Oonchiumpa, we've developed culturally-led youth empowerment programs that connect young people with their identity while building practical skills for navigating contemporary contexts. Our approach focuses on relationship-building first, recognizing that trust forms the foundation for meaningful change.
We create opportunities for young people to witness positive role models through activities like basketball games, business tours, and on-country experiences. These seemingly simple outings show young people possibilities they might not otherwise encounter, expanding their sense of what's possible for their own futures.
Our work as cultural brokers helps connect young people with services and opportunities they might otherwise miss—from sports vouchers to health appointments to educational pathways. We translate between systems and individuals, ensuring young people aren't lost in bureaucratic gaps.
We've also established partnerships with educational institutions, sharing cultural knowledge that transforms how professionals understand Central Australian contexts. These collaborations create ripple effects that improve how systems interact with Aboriginal young people and their families, addressing structural barriers alongside individual needs.
I'm guided by the understanding that knowledge alone doesn't create change—relationship does. Having worked in diverse legal contexts, I've seen how systems often fail people not because of insufficient information, but because of disconnection from the human stories behind legal issues.
I believe in the power of cultural knowledge to transform conventional approaches to justice and wellbeing. When young people understand who they are and where they come from, they develop internal resources that no external program can provide. This cultural strength provides the foundation for navigating life's challenges.
I'm committed to truth-telling as an essential part of healing. Australia's reluctance to acknowledge its full history prevents us from addressing the root causes of current challenges. By creating spaces where honest conversations can happen—about both historical injustices and present possibilities—we build pathways to genuine transformation.
I'm also guided by the vision of Aboriginal leadership in all areas affecting our communities. Our people have the knowledge, capability, and right to determine our own futures, particularly in relation to the wellbeing of our young people.
Meaningful partnership begins with listening—not just to understand immediate needs, but to comprehend the deeper contexts and cultural frameworks that shape community experiences. Partners can walk alongside us by approaching collaboration with humility and genuine openness to learning.
Organizations can support our work by providing resources without imposing external agendas, recognizing that community-led approaches deliver more sustainable outcomes than top-down interventions. This means being willing to adapt conventional timeframes and evaluation methods to honor cultural processes.
Education institutions can create opportunities for knowledge exchange that values Aboriginal perspectives as expertise rather than merely cultural content. When our young people see their cultural knowledge recognized and respected in formal learning contexts, they gain confidence in navigating educational pathways.
Walking together also means acknowledging that transformation takes time. Quick fixes and short-term projects rarely address complex challenges with historical roots. Genuine partnership involves commitment to long-term relationships and processes that honor the pace of community-led change.
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