Please join the Adelaide Law School for morning tea on Monday, 2 May 2016 to re-launch the Irene Watson Lounge. The guest of honour will be Professor Irene Watson  who will be unveiling a photo to honour this occasion.

The Adelaide Law School is proud to announce that 6 of their Aboriginal students will be graduating in 2016. The graduation of 3 of these students coincides with this unveiling so we will also take this opportunity to celebrate their achievement over coffee and pastries.

Date:    Monday 2 May 2016
Time:    9.15am -10.15am
Venue:    Law School Foyer, Ligertwood Building
RSVP:    By Thursday 28 April 2016 by emailing rhiannon.kinsey@adelaide.edu.au

Irene Watson was the first Aboriginal person to graduate with a Bachelor of Laws (1985) from the University of Adelaide.  She subsequently graduated with a Master of Laws (1993), and a PhD (2000) for which she won the Bonython Law Prize for best PhD thesis.

Irene’s work has made a significant impression on everyday legal practice in respect of centring an Indigenous perspective in the long processes of law reform. In 2015 she published Aboriginal Peoples, Colonialism and International Law: Raw Law, the first work to assess the legality and impact of colonisation from the viewpoint of Aboriginal law, rather than from that of the dominant Western legal tradition.

Irene belongs to the Tanganekald and Meintangk First Nations Peoples whose country lies across the Coorong and the south east of South Australia. She has had a close relationship with the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement SA, since its inception in 1973, working as a member, solicitor and director. From 1989 onwards she has taught in all three South Australian universities and was a research fellow with the University of Sydney Law School. She is currently a research Professor of Law at the University of South Australia and she continues to work as an advocate for First Nations Peoples in international law.