Wiradjuri woman and Senior Solicitor at the Aboriginal Legal Service NSW/ACT, Emma Hudson-Buhagiar was named First Nations Lawyer of the Year at the 2024 Ngalaya Ball and First Nations Law Awards.
Emma was nominated by six of her ALS colleagues, who all made strong endorsements of her incredible work on the Walama List since its inception in 2021. One nominee wrote of Emma:
She has worked tirelessly in developing the program with various stakeholders which includes attending meetings with the Court, the DPP, Rehabilitation Centres and Elders. The program’s success is well known, and Emma has been one, if not the most, consistent figures in the list since the beginning. Its success is her success. [...] there was no template for how this program was to run. Emma has had to work to build the best ways to service the various participants to ensure that she can make sure the goals and initiatives of the program are met.
Reflecting on her earlier work at the ALS, another nominee said:
Emma has worked tirelessly in pursuit of justice for clients of the ALS, appearing for children and adults in courts of all levels of NSW. She has dedicated herself in particular to supporting young people in the Youth Koori Court both at Parramatta and Surry Hills, which is work requiring significant skill, care, patience, and many, many hours to build rapport and trust to be able to support some of our most vulnerable young clients through a lengthy and, at times, onerous sentencing process that may take up to 12 months to complete.
Ngalaya's Executive Director, Jason O'Neil, was very proud to present this award to Emma in recognition of her tireless work advocating for mob and developing the Walama List program.
