Lawyer, storyteller and PhD candidate Sarouche Razi is exploring how art practices can be used to advance coronial justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Sarouche Razi
Research Themes
Research Centre
Biography
Sarouche Razi is an interdisciplinary researcher and legal practitioner with expertise in the legal assistance sector, critical legal and pedagogical theories, police and state accountability, and decolonising the law.
He has worked primarily in legal service delivery in the community controlled and Aboriginal community controlled sector, and has been involved in significant court representation relating to historical injustices, and deaths in custody for First Nations Australians.
Sarouche volunteers as a pro bono lawyer at Kimberley Community Legal Services, works with the NSW Legal Assistance Forum, and continues to be involved in community radio broadcasting.
He is currently teaching the Prison Legal Literacy Course at the College of Law and is undertaking doctoral studies looking at civil law as a space of punishment of First Nations' peoples, and the role of legal representation in that space.
Significant research publications
- 2019: Klein, E, and Razi, S. “Contemporary tools of dispossession: The Cashless Debit Card Trial in the East Kimberley”, Journal of Australian Political Economy (Special Issue on Indigenous welfare policy), 82: 84-106
- 2017: Klein, E, and Razi, S, “The Cashless Debit Card and the East Kimberley”, Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research Working Paper, ANU, 121/2017, 1-18.
- 2015: Eggington, D, and Razi, S, “The Bogeyman in the Mirror: White Australia and the Proposal to Close Remote Communities in Western Australia”, Indigenous Law Bulletin, Vol. 8, No. 20, September/October 2015
- 2014: Barter, A, Razi, S, and Williams, V, “Why the caged bird sings: Issues with the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse” Indigenous Law Bulletin, Vol. 8, No. 13, July/August 2014
Recent news
09
Feb
2022
2021 University Medallist, Robyn Lewis (BPolPhilEc '19, LLB (Hons) '21), initially decided to study law because she wanted to make a difference in the world and “liked an argument”.
Research biography
Sarouche is interested in critical approaches to legal practice, and has worked widely across both the legal profession, the community, and the academy in addressing justice issues across Western Australia, Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales, and the Australian Capital Territory.
In his practice inside both the community controlled and Aboriginal community controlled organisation, he has conducted field work, supported research, and published on issues particularly relating to Indigenous justice, and social security law.
He undertakes community based projects, and has a particular relationship with the Pasifika community in Melbourne, and is part of a community group focusing on a decolonial approach to restorative justice.
Sarouche seeks an interdisciplinary approach to both his research and practice interests- and works in the community radio, legal education, and community development sectors to build community strength.
Refereed journal articles
- 2019: Klein, E, and Razi, S. “Contemporary tools of dispossession: The Cashless Debit Card Trial in the East Kimberley”, Journal of Australian Political Economy (Special Issue on Indigenous welfare policy), 82: 84-106
- 2017: Klein, E, and Razi, S, “The Cashless Debit Card and the East Kimberley”, Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research Working Paper, ANU, 121/2017, 1-18.
- 2015: Eggington, D, and Razi, S, “The Bogeyman in the Mirror: White Australia and the Proposal to Close Remote Communities in Western Australia”, Indigenous Law Bulletin, Vol. 8, No. 20, September/October 2015
- 2014: Barter, A, Razi, S, and Williams, V, “Why the caged bird sings: Issues with the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse” Indigenous Law Bulletin, Vol. 8, No. 13, July/August 2014
Conference papers & presentations
- Fischer Doherty, K, and Razi, S, “The Pasifika Radio Community Legal Education Project”, Global Alliance of Justice Education Conference, Bandung, December 2019
- Razi, S, and Bieundurry, T, “One Land, Two Peoples: Has Australia ever really been one nation’, Aboriginal People and the Legal System, Nulungu Institute, Broome, October 2019
- Razi, S, “the Police complaints system” in Doing structural justice: global/local, Criminology, University of Melbourne, July 2019
- Harrison, J, and Razi, S, “Free, Only in Battle”: Legal Skills, Philanthropy, and Aboriginal Sovereignties in the Kimberley”, Global Legal Skills Conference, University of Melbourne, December 2018
- Prior, K, Razi, S, Mansfield, H, Wright, N, and Poole, M, “The future of the community legal sector”, Transforming Democracy Conference, Federation of Community Legal Centres, Melbourne, November 2019
- Razi, S, Sutherland, P, and Harrison, J, “The Cashless Debit Card and its legal implications” Cashless Debit Card Symposium, University of Melbourne, 1-2 February, 2019.
- Harrison, J, and Razi, S, “Kimberley rising: radical remoteness and radical clinical pedagogy”, International Journal of Clinical Legal Education Conference, Monash University, Melbourne, November 2019
- Razi, S, and Kailahi, S, “Pasifika Legal Clinic, Progressive Models of Service Delivery”, National Association of Community Legal Centre Conference, Sydney, August 2019
- Fatone, C, Razi S, Patterson, S, McMorrine, C, “Powering a Renewable Sector: Sector Driven Sustainability”, National Association of Community Legal Centre Conference, Sydney, August 2018
- Harrison, J, and Razi, S, Long distance clinics: Can remote area legal services exercise the right to the city?’, Global Alliance of Justice Education, Puebla Mexico, 2019.
- Dodson, P, Schmidt, B, Razi, S, et al, “Pindan, peripheries, and power: First Nations Peoples, civil law, and justice in the Kimberley”, College of Law, Australian National University, Canberra, August 2017
- Razi, S, and Sutherland, P, “Cashless Welfare Card”, National Association of Community Legal Centre Conference, Canberra, August 2017
- Razi S, “Income Management and the Cashless Debit Card”, National Association of Community Legal Centre Conference, Fremantle, August 2016
- Razi S, “the Cashless Debit Card and the Social Security System”, National Social Security Rights Network, Fremantle, August 2016
- Eggington, D, and Razi, S, “Every day human rights: protecting human rights outside the courtoom”, Indigenous Law, University of Notre Dame, 2015.
- Razi, S, “Burial Matters: legal issues surrounding burial disputes in Aboriginal communities”, Aboriginal Legal Services of Western Australia Conference, 2014.
- Razi, S, “Working in Indigenous Australian Contexts: A human rights and social justice context”, Centre for Aboriginal Studies, Curtin University, 2013.
- Razi, S, “Cross-cultural training in Indigenous contexts”, Western Australian Attorney General’s Department, 2013.
- Razi, S, “Cross-cultural training in Indigenous contexts”, Western Australian Attorney General’s Department, 2012.
Commissioned reports
-
Razi, S. “The Pasifika Project: A mixed-methods clinic supporting the Pasifika community in the Western suburbs of Melbourne”, 2020, Western Community Legal Service Publication, available at https://www.westjustice.org.au/cms_uploads/docs/pasifika-report--final.pdf
Committees
External Organisations
- Steering committee member, the Justice Map https://justicemap.org.au/
- Steering committee member, Pasifika Restorative Justice Action Group.
- Convenor and chair, Westjustice Reconciliation Action Plan (2018-2021)
- Steering Committee member, Smart Justice Coalition (2019-2020)
- Consultation for Western Australian Aboriginal Communities as part of Cuneen, C, and Allison, F, Indigenous legal needs project (2013-2014)
Other
NOTABLE LEGAL REPRESENTATION
2017-2019: Inquest into the Deaths of 13 Children and Young Persons in the Kimberley Region (chief counsel representing 12 of the 13 families)
2015 & 2017: Appearing as an expert witness and on a roundtable in the Royal Commission into Institutional responses to Child Sexual Abuse
2015-2016: Inquest into the Death of Ms. Dhu (solicitor instructing counsel)
2014: Collard and the State of Western Australia (High Court special leave application, solicitor instruction counsel)
2013: Collard and the State of Western Australia (Supreme Court civil suit, solicitor instructing counsel)
2012: Ward and the State of Western Australia (solicitor instructing counsel)
MULTI-MEDIA PROJECTS
2019: Razi, S, and Bieundurry T, Deadly Justice, Goolarri Radio, broadcast September -December 2019 (see for example https://tinyurl.com/y2cb6udr)
2019: “Constable Care”, story into police conduct in the Kimberley, published on ABC Awaye! https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/awaye/wungu/8203606 (interviewee)
2019: Razi, S, and Jones, A, “Cherry Creek Prison”, Done by Law, 3CR Community Radio Melbourne,
https://www.3cr.org.au/donebylaw/episode-201904091800/cherry-creek-prison
2017: “The Carter Matter”, story into police conduct in the Kimberley, published on ABC Awaye!: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/awaye/wungu/8203606 (interviewee)
Current courses
| Year | Course code | Course name |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 |
LAWS4304 Class #4135 |
Prison Legal Literacy Clinic |
| 2023 |
LAWS6304 Class #4136 |
Prison Legal Literacy Clinic |
| 2023 |
LAWS4304 Class #7162 |
Prison Legal Literacy Clinic |
| 2023 |
LAWS6304 Class #7163 |
Prison Legal Literacy Clinic |
How my works connects with public policy
Sarouche continues to work directly with the legal assistance sector. Current engagements include:
- Supporting the work of the NSW Legal Assistance Forum;
- Volunteering with the Kimberley Community Legal Services;
- Volunteering with community radio broadbasting networks;
- The Pasifika Restorative Justice Action Group, in Melbourne.
In his legal practice role he had made multiple submissions and policy reports to government, the latest of which relates to the Pasifika community in Melbourne.
Topic
Sarouche is undertaking doctoral studies. His thesis is entitled: "Punishment, resurgence, and performativity: an exploration of constructing subjectivities in neo-Colonial civil law in Australia" and states:
In this project I aim to explore the ways the state punishes First Nations peoples in the Kimberley using civil law mechanisms, and the role that lawyers play in that process. I consider how First Nations peoples assert resurgent possibilities in response to the state, the role of legal practitioners working in the Kimberley, and my own role as a legal practitioner, and how that intersects with my identities as a Muslim, Afghan and Iranian. I seek to explore the literature around performativity, spatiality, and standpoint theories to contextualise the project.
