2023 Awards – Guest Speaker

Teela Reid is a proud Wiradjuri and Wailwan woman, lawyer, essayist, storyteller, co-organiser of Rebellious Lawyers Australia and co-founder of @blackfulla_bookclub, a platform that honours First Nation’s Ancestors as the original Storytellers. Currently, Teela is a Sydney-based Senior Solicitor practicing in Aboriginal Land Rights litigation and is the current Practitioner in residence at Sydney Law School. She is also a campaigner for the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

Teela has an impressive career thus far, including a number of published essays, being called upon for her opinion by a variety of media outlets including ABC, Sydney Morning Herald, Washington Post, Bloomberg, The Guardian, Marie Claire and The National Indigenous Times.

Teela has been the recipient of a number of awards, most notably the 2020 UNSW Young Achiever for her contributions to the community, her advocacy as a working group leader on s 51(xxvi), the Race Power, in the Constitutional dialogue process that culminated in the Uluru Statement from the Heart that culminated in the most historic calls for a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Australian Constitution and a Makarrata Commission to enable a process of Treaty and Truth-telling. Teela was also recognised for her work as a key thinker and leading advocate behind the Walama Court, a proposal to establish an Aboriginal sentencing court at the NSW District Court jurisdiction.

Previously, Teela has practiced in civil and criminal law at Legal Aid NSW and was tipstaff to her Honour Justice Lucy McCallum of the New South Wales Supreme Court.

In addition to her already robust CV, Teela is a published author. Teela’s debut novel, Legally Blak, draws on her own experiences as a young blak female lawyer and highlights a number of truths about life for First Nations people in modern Australia. It explores the collision of the western legal system with First Nations sovereignty, an enduring love for her country and the challenges that come with reimagining an Australian Republic.