Language and the law: White Australia v Nancy

First published in 1993, this chapter tells the story of an Aboriginal woman's encounter with the criminal justice process. The story is fictional, but based on a number of real cases, and the chapter is organised so that students can learn about aspects of Aboriginal culture and ways of communicating that are relevant to the case. Although it describes commonly observed patterns of language use, this chapter should not be read as describing the language and culture of all Aboriginal people in all parts of Australia. Further, it does not deal with how bicultural Aboriginal people may interact with non-Aboriginal people (see Section 1.5.2).