Hannah McGlade CF (born 6 June 1969) is an Australian academic, human rights advocate and lawyer. She is a Kurin Minang

Noongar The Noongar (, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar , Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga ) are Aboriginal Australian peoples who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton on the west coast to Esperance on the so ...

woman of the

Bibulman The Bibulman (Pibelmen) are an indigenous Australian people of the southwestern region of Western Australia, a subgroup of the Noongar. Name Their autonym may be related to the word for stingray, ''pibilum''. Country Pibelmen lands comprised ...

nation and is an associate professor at

Curtin University Curtin University, formerly known as Curtin University of Technology and Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT), is an Australian public research university based in Bentley, Perth, Western Australia. It is named after John Curtin, ...

's law school. She was appointed Senior Indigenous Fellow at the

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, commonly known as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) or the United Nations Human Rights Office, is a department of the Secretariat of the United Nati ...

in 2016 and has been a member of the

United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII or PFII) is the UN's central coordinating body for matters relating to the concerns and rights of the world's indigenous peoples. There are more than 370 million indigenous peop ...

since 2020.

Early life and education

McGlade was born on 6 June 1969 in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, Western Australia. She is a Kurin Minang

woman of the

nation, an

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...

people whose traditional lands are located on the southwestern coast of Western Australia. At

Murdoch University Murdoch University is a public university in Perth, Western Australia, with campuses also in Singapore and Dubai. It began operations as the state's second university on 25 July 1973, and accepted its first undergraduate students in 1975. Its n ...

, McGlade completed a

Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

in 1995 (making her the first Aboriginal woman to graduate from this university and the first to graduate from any WA law school). She was admitted as a solicitor and barrister of the

Supreme Court of Western Australia The Supreme Court of Western Australia is the highest state court in the Australian State of Western Australia. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the state in civil matters (although it usually only hears matters involving sums of A$750,00 ...

in 1996. She earned a

Master of Laws A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an advanced postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in a related subject. In mos ...

in 2001. In 2011 she received her

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

for her thesis, "Aboriginal child sexual assault (CSA) and the criminal justice system: the last frontier", under doctoral adviser Linda Briskman. The thesis won the

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), established as the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) in 1964, is an independent Australian Government statutory authority. It is a collecting, ...

(AIATSIS)

Stanner Award The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), established as the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) in 1964, is an independent Australian Government statutory authority. It is a collecting, ...

, which is "presented biennially to the best academic manuscript submitted by an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander author". Due to this win, the thesis was published as a book in 2012 with the title ''Our Greatest Challenge: Aboriginal children and human rights''.

Academic career

In 2016, she was appointed Senior Indigenous Research Fellow at Curtin, and is an associate professor at Curtin Law School. In 2020, she received a

Churchill Fellowship Winston Churchill Memorial Trusts (WCMT) are three independent but related living memorials to Sir Winston Churchill, based in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. They exist for the purpose of administering Churchill Fellowships, a ...

to research the Indigenous

Sámi Parliaments The Sámi ( ; also spelled Sami or Saami) are a Finno-Ugric-speaking people inhabiting the region of Sápmi (formerly known as Lapland), which today encompasses large northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and of the Murmansk Oblast, R ...

of Finland, Norway and Sweden.

Advocacy

McGlade has often acted as an advocate for

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

, especially focussing on issues relating to law,

sexual assault Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...

, women's justice and systemic discrimination. In 2002, she brought then-federal senator

Ross Lightfoot Philip Ross Lightfoot (born 11 August 1936) is a former Australian politician. He was a Liberal Party of Australia, Liberal member of the Australian Senate from 1997 to 2008, representing the state of Western Australia. Early life Lightfoot was ...

to court for

racial discrimination Racial discrimination is any discrimination against any individual on the basis of their skin color, race or ethnic origin.Individuals can discriminate by refusing to do business with, socialize with, or share resources with people of a certain g ...

after he commented that Aboriginal Australians were "the most primitive race on earth". She was successful, and Lightfoot was charged with breaching the ''

Racial Discrimination Act 1975 The ''Racial Discrimination Act 1975'' (Cth). is an Act of the Australian Parliament, which was enacted on 11 June 1975 and passed by the Whitlam government. The Act makes racial discrimination in certain contexts unlawful in Australia, and als ...

''. In 2016, McGlade began campaigning for a stand-alone national action plan to address violence against women, and her advocacy was successful before a number of UN treaty bodies and expert mechanisms. In 2020 she called for a Council on Violence Against Aboriginal Women and Children in collaboration with the national body

Our Watch Our Watch, formerly Foundation to Prevent Violence Against Women and their Children, is an Australian organisation that exists to help prevent violence against women and their children. Founded in mid-2013 with Natasha Stott Despoja as founding ...

(founded by

Natasha Stott Despoja Natasha Jessica Stott Despoja AO (born 9 September 1969) is an Australian politician, diplomat, advocate and author. She is the founding Chair of the Board of Our Watch, the national foundation to prevent violence against women and their childr ...

in 2013). In June 2021 the

Morrison government The Morrison government was the federal executive government of Australia, led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison of the Liberal Party of Australia, between 2018 and 2022. The Morrison government commenced on 24 August 2018, when it was sworn ...

established a National Plan Advisory Group headed by

Marise Payne Marise Ann Payne (born 29 July 1964) is an Australian politician who served in the Morrison Government as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2018 to 2022 and as Minister for Women from 2019 to 2022. She has been a Senator for New South Wales sin ...

, Minister for Women, to "inform the development of the National Plan to end family, domestic and sexual violence in Australia". Her advocacy for Aboriginal women and children over decades led to the establishment of the first service in Perth for victims, named Djinda. She was later the first CEO of the newly established Aboriginal Family Law Services. She has also spoken out strongly against the destruction of a sacred site at

Juukan Gorge Juukan Gorge is a gorge in the Hamersley Range in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, about from Mt Tom Price. It was named by the daughter of Puutu Kunti Kurrama man Juukan, also known as Tommy Ashburton, who was born at Jukarinya (Mt B ...

which occurred in 2020, claiming that "governments and mining companies are causing harm to land" and that "now more than ever we should listen to Aboriginal people who want to protect land and culture." While a cultural heritage bill was proposed in

Western Australian Parliament The Parliament of Western Australia is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Western Australia, forming the legislative branch of the Government of Western Australia. The parliament consists of a lower house, the Legislative Ass ...

in 2021 which attempted to prevent such situations in the future, McGlade rejected its legitimacy and claimed Indigenous people had not been sufficiently consulted on the issue. With four other Indigenous people, she asked the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to review the bill, claiming it contradicted Australia's international obligations regarding racial discrimination. Also in 2021, she voiced concerns about

Bruce Pascoe Bruce Pascoe (born 1947) is an Aboriginal Australian writer of literary fiction, non-fiction, poetry, essays and children's literature. As well as his own name, Pascoe has written under the pen names Murray Gray and Leopold Glass. Since August 2 ...

's book ''

Dark Emu ''Dark Emu: Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident?'' is a 2014 non-fiction book by Bruce Pascoe. It reexamines colonial accounts of Aboriginal people in Australia, and cites evidence of pre-colonial agriculture, engineering and building constr ...

'', saying that it was "ideological and subjective", "not very truthful or accurate" and "misleading and offensive to Aboriginal people and culture".

Other roles

She was appointed Senior Indigenous Fellow at the

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

in 2016. She assists the

Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), CDH is a United Nations body whose mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world. The Council has 47 members elected for staggered three-year terms on a regional group basis. ...

(EMRIP) there. As of May 2022, she is a member of the

representing the Pacific, having commenced the role in 2020.

Recognition and awards

*1996: West Australian NAIDOC Student of the Year Award *2008: WA NAIDOC Outstanding Achievement Award *2011: AIATSIS'

for her PhD thesis *2020:

*2020: WA NAIDOC Outstanding Achievement Award

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McGlade, Hannah Living people 1969 births Noongar people Indigenous Australian women academics Murdoch University alumni Curtin University alumni Curtin University faculty Australian indigenous rights activists Australian women's rights activists Sexual abuse victim advocates Australian women lawyers 21st-century women lawyers 21st-century Australian lawyers Lawyers from Perth, Western Australia Women legal scholars