COVER STORY ! he Honourable Justice Jenny Blokland Welcome Ceremonial Sitting Friday 9 April 2010 special sitting of the Full Attorney-General, Ms honourable Court. ACourt of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory was held Delia Lawrie MLA Almost twenty years ago now, on Friday 9 April 2010 for the another female Chief Magistrate, presentation of the commission of t gives me great professional Sally Thomas J, was promoted to her Honour, Justice Blokland, and Iand personal pleasure to rise this Bench and earned the great to welcome her Honourto the Court. on behalf of this Government respect of the Territory’s legal This article contains excerpts from to welcome the appointment of fraternity. I have no doubt your the addresses made at the sitting. your Honour, Blokland J, to this Honour will do the same. It has been a long journey from Ardrossan in South Australia, where your Honour was born, to the present. Your Honour was educated at Modbury High School in Adelaide and subsequently completed a Bachelor of Laws degree at the University of Adelaide. Your Honour undertook articles of clerkship at the then Northern Territory Department of Law between 1980 and 1981. Your Honour left shortly after completion of your articles and took up a position with the North Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service, where you practised in the The Affirmation I, Jenny May Blokland, do solemnly and sincerely promise, affirm and declare that I will bear true allegiance to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, her heirs and successors according to law, that I will well and truly serve her in the office of Judge of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory of Australia and that I will do right to all manner of people according to law without fear or favour, affection or ill The Hon Justice Blokland takes her Affirmation of Office in the presence of His will. Honour, the Administrator of the Northern Territory, Mr. Tom Pauling AO QC. 16 www.lawsocietynt.asn.au The Hon Justice Blokland subscribes her Affirmation of Office in the presence of His Honour, the Administrator of the Northern Territory, Mr. Tom Pauling AO QC. The Commission, read areas of criminal law and family law. different challenges and, following by the Master: Your Honour then moved to the the election of the present Australian Legal Aid Office where government in 2001, your Honour To the Honourable Jenny May you also practised in criminal law was appointed as Director of Policy Blokland. and family law. with the Department of Justice. Know ye that reposing full trust Your Honour was subsequently In 1987, your Honour sought and confidence in your loyalty, appointed as a Magistrate in 2002 to further your education at learning, integrity and ability, I, and then as Chief Magistrate in the University of Adelaide and Thomas Ian Pauling, Officer of 2006. undertook a masters degree in the Order of Australia, Adminis­ trator of the Northern Territory of law and course work with a minor During the course of your Honour’s Australia, acting with the advice thesis in evidence. Your Honour legal career, you have served on of the Executive Council of the also worked as a research officer numerous boards, including as a Northern Territory of Australia and part-time tutorduring that time. member of the Legal Practitioner in pursuance of section 32(1) of In 1990, your Honour returned to Complaints Committee, the Legal the Supreme Court Act 1979 do, the Northern Territory and took Aid Commission and the Criminal by my commission, appoint you, up a position as a lecturer at the Code Review Committee and as Jenny May Blokland, learned in Northern Territory University, President of the Northern Territory the law for the Northern Territory, where you taught in the areas of Criminal Lawyers Association to be a Judge of the Supreme criminal law, evidence and public between 1991 and 1994. international law, and also held an Court in the Northern Territory appointment as a Judicial Registrar YourHonourhasalso had published of Australia from and including of the Industrial Relations Court a number of articles focusing on the ninth day of April in the year of Australia. Your Honour was criminal law and the position of of our Lord, 2010 to have, hold, appointed as Dean of the Law indigenous and underprivileged exercise and enjoy the said Faculty in 1996. people in the justice system, office of Judge of the Supreme including feminist amicus brief in Court of the Northern Territory In 1998, your Honour took up the stolen generation’s litigation, of Australia under and subject to a position as general counsel published in the Aboriginal Law the provisions of the Supreme for the Office of the Director of Bulletin in 1997 and, Where Two Court Act 1979, as amended Public Prosecutions. Your Honour Worlds Collide, published in the from time to time, during good remained there until 2000 and, Alternative Law Journal in 2006. behaviour with ail rights, powers, during that time, appeared in six privileges, advantages and reported cases. Your Honour then Your Honour brings to this Bench jurisdiction thereto belonging to practised as a barrister at James a great interest and commitment or appertaining. Muirhead Chambers. to the principles of therapeutic jurisprudence and restorative Given under the seal of the After some months at the private justice. Your Honour has been a Administrator. Bar, your Honour decided to seek champion of the community courts Balance 2/2010 17 COVER STORY and the work done in bush courts, Territory and to wish you a warm who worked with you at NAALAS and the scope of your many judicial welcome. remember you as an excellent decisions has traversed all areas and a lively colleague and a good of the law. At the Bar, first reactions to a judicial friend. Some are here today to appointment are instructive. Upon welcome your appointment. Your mother, Joan, who is here the announcementofyourHonour’s today, has been a role model appointment the reaction of the Those were the early days in the and an inspiration to you. Your members of the Bar Association advancement of Aboriginal people mother, a kind and generous was positive and almost effusive, in the Australian justice system. woman, passed on to you a strong especially among senior members. Your Honour acquired the name work ethic and a love of learning Your Honour’s appointment to the of The Voir Dire Kid’ as a result of and education. The people of the Bench is genuinely welcomed and your feisty advocacy in the criminal Northern Territory, in turn, have supported by the Northern Territory jurisdiction. The office you worked benefited and will continue to Bar. It is an appointment based on in was the original Aboriginal benefit from the encouragement, merit, together with your Honour’s Legal Aid office in Bennett Street, belief and support your mother long experience in the law and now demolished. Your Honour’s gives you. Although your father, the wider Northern Territory residence at the time was 4 Frank, is no longer with us, he was community, with all its complexities, Hinkler Street, Fannie Bay, now a also an important influence in your over the last 30 years. development site, but in the 1980s life and it is maybe because of the a hub and social centre for those time he spent in the Territory in In the early 1980s, your Honour involved in advancing justice for the 1950s that led you to make the was articled to that then well- the marginalised. Territory your home. known duo, Geoff Clarke and Bob Hook, in the Department of Law. Your Honour was and continues The people ofthe Northern Territory You worked with the first Solicitor- to be a lover of music, a composer may trust that your Honour will General ofthe Northern Territory, of songs and an avid guitar player, discharge your judicial duties in Ian Barker QC. The building you galvanising your colleagues accordance with your oath and with worked in was the Wells Building, socially and artistically in the the utmost intellectual integrity. I now demolished and over which otherwise serious and challenging wish your Honour, your Honour’s the Legislative Assembly now role of advocating justice for the partner, Jamie, and your Honour’s stands. But your Honour was Aboriginal people in the Northern children, Anthony and Helena, young, restless and wanting to Territory. all the best in this next exciting make a real contribution to justice chapter of your lives. beyond the important legal issues You were the third democratically that confronted the new Territory, appointed president ofthe Criminal with self-government only four or Lawyers Association of the Ms Raelene Webb QC so years old. Northern Territory. Your Honour President ofthe Northern Territory was an active arid principled Bar Association Your Honour moved on to work as president and had a prominent a solicitor advocate at the North public advocacy role in relation n behalf of the members of Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid to matters of criminal justice. It Othe Northern Territory Bar Service, joining a day after Colin was during your involvement with Association, I am pleased to McDonald QC, in October 1981. the Criminal Lawyers Association congratulate your Honour, Justice To your role in Aboriginal legal at the Annual Bali Conference Blokland, on your appointment to aid your Honour brought passion, that your Honour displayed your the Supreme Court ofthe Northern empathy and enthusiasm. Those versatility as a barrel girl to the then 18 www.lawsocietynt.asn.au History is made, as for the first time the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory has two female Judges; The Hon Justice Jenny Blokland and The Hon Justice Judith Kelly Attorney-General, the Honourable Daryl Manzie.