Aboriginality and lawyering: problems of justice for Aboriginal defendants - focus on partner homicide

Focusing on the Robyn Kina case, an Aboriginal Australian woman sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering her violent and abusive de facto partner, this analysis explores issues surrounding the use of battered woman syndrome as a defense to murder and the problematics of predominantly White lawyers' interface with Aboriginal clients and, in particular, with abused women. Central to this analysis is the gendering of the law on provocation and self-defense based on male standards of proportionality, immediacy, and reasonableness that deny the reality of women's experience of domestic violence and the debilitating effects of psychological and emotional power and control wielded in abusive relationships. Sociolingusitic research shows that a familiarity with Aboriginal English and the cultural norms of Aboriginal communities, in particular women's reticence to speak of private sexual matters, is necessary to have a foundation for communication between Aboriginal clients and the legal system.