Meet the Tarwirri President, Andrew Williams

Andrew is a proud Palawa (Poredareme) man who grew up mostly in Wurundjeri country and now lives on Bunurong land. He is the President of Tarwirri and a Lawyer at the First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria.  

How long have you been a member of Tarwirri? 
I’ve been a Tarwirri member since 2015 

Why did you join Tarwirri? 
There were no other Mob in my intake of the Juris Doctor (‘JD’) and I missed that connection to other First Nations students that I had from my previous degrees. Tarwirri was an opportunity to connect with other students across years and universities and with already practising lawyers. 

How has Tarwirri supported you over the years?  
Tarwirri quickly became that place to establish a network with Mob excelling in their career, it showed that the path was possible and that there were people to talk to who had been through similar trials and tribulations. 

Why did you decide to study law and become a lawyer/legal professional? 
Originally, I was nearing the end of my BSc (Genetics), and I decided I wanted to go into something related to the commercialisation of science to help bring the ideas and advances of scientists to the benefit of the community. I decided to do that by becoming a lawyer specialising in the commercialisation and business development of new ideas. I first completed a Master of Biotechnology and then the Juris Doctor. 

What area of law do you find most interesting? 
Hard to pick one. I love my current job of contributing towards Treaty and Aboriginal/Human rights through being an in-house counsel. I bring a lot of corporate and commercial law background to that space, but I like the generalist nature of being in-house too. There is always something interesting popping up. 

If you could describe Tarwirri three words, what would it be? 
Supportive, Nurturing , Inspiring 

Interview by Executive Officer, Tekan Cochrane. If you wish to connect with Andrew, please contact Tarwirri at info@tarwirri.com.au.