In the past we have borne all the costs associated with maintaining the website but we are now having difficulties in paying the monthly expenses. in Melbourne, publicly opposed discriminatory laws against
William Ah Ket was a noted Australian barrister. He advocated and promoted peaceful coexistence. Special thanks to Jennifer Wood, Kate Bagnall, Pauline Rule and the National Library of Australia for helping with research. He also appeared before Justice Lowe after he was appointed to the Supreme Court of Victoria. As the first #ChineseAustralian to join the Victorian Bar, William was born. He specialised in civil law and acquired a considerable reputation as a negotiator of settlements. William had 4 sisters: Alberta Young (born Ah Ket) and 3 other siblings. Ben Dunn who all gained renown in that era as KCs, or Justices
"William Ah Ket's contribution to diversity in the legal profession" The Hon Susan Kiefel AC Chief Justice of Australia I am pleased to speak this evening and honoured to present the William Ah Ket Scholarship for 2019. barrister to practice in Melbourne. The story of William Ah Ket is a significant one in the history of the Australian legal profession. On top of that work, William also had to deal with racism. The award is sponsored by Maddocks where William Ah Ket was an articled clerk prior to joining the Victorian Bar, which is also a new sponsor this year along with the University of Melbourne Law School, where Mr Ah Ket studied. His father had taken him to China when he was about five years old. He was a phenomenon at the Victorian Bar, a full-blooded Chinese born in the north-east of Victoria. Asian Studies Program
He was a leading activist in the campaigns for equal rights for Chinese-Australians at a time when anti-Chinese sentiment ran deep. New and compelling histories from Australia and around the world. The Melbourne Chinese Chamber of Commerce asked him to represent Australian Chinese at the opening of the first Chinese Parliament in Beijing in December, 1912 and he was Acting Consul for China in 19131914 and 1917. 10William Ah Ket Scholarship 2019, Program (9 October 2019). I because I am Chinese. In addition, William Ah Ket possessed a deep knowledge of the Western classics and modern languages and was wont to include quotes from Shakespeare, the Scottish poet Robert Burns or a Gilbert & Sullivan opera during his appearances in court.[14]. The Asian Australian Lawyers She said there were maids at the family home, where her parents often hosted glamorous mah-jong and poker parties for their friends. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work. For example, in addition to a busy life at the bar, William Ah Ket spent time as a diplomat, serving as acting consul-general for China in 1913-1914 and in 1917. Mantova, utca. It is fitting and proper that this scholarship is named for him.9, In the program notes, the recipient of the 2019 William Ah Ket Scholarship, Ms Tienyi Long, Legal and Governance Officer at Glen Eira City Council, Victoria writes that [l]awyers, courts and legislators continue to grapple with the question of how equal justice can be achieved for diverse communities in a multifaceted and increasingly complex societydiversity intelligence is an essential skill to facilitate equal access to justice for diverse communitiesit should be included as part of mandatory continuing professional development requirements under the Legal Profession Uniform Law.10. [2] William stayed involved with the University and was elected the President of the Law Students Society on 19 April 1907. to win the reluctant approval of the bench with his propensity
of growing up in a traditional Chinese household where his
He was, by all accounts, a man of 8Citing Toylaan Ah Ket, William Ah KetBuilding Bridges between Occident and Orient in Australia, 1900-1936 (Chinese Studies Association of Australia, Macquarie University, July 1995) at 9. William Ah Ket (1876-1936), barrister, was born on 20 June 1876 at Wangaratta, Victoria, only son and fifth child of Ah Ket, storekeeper and grower and buyer of tobacco, and his wife Hing Ung, who were married in Melbourne in 1864. This Australian law-related biographical article is a stub. He went to the bar the following year and is widely understood to have become the first Australian lawyer of Chinese descent to practise as a barrister at the independent bar in the state of Victoria.3. of 'building bridges between the East and West.'. William was particularly active in the fight against racial discrimination. he signed the Bar Roll in 1904 and became the first Chinese
William's client, James Minahan, was born in Australia to an Anglo-Australian mother and Chinese father. "Obviously there's not a White Australia policy as such against Chinese migrants," she says. Fax: +61 3 9479 1880
After completing his secondary education, he studied law at the University of Melbourne, and joined the law firm of Maddock & Jamieson (now Maddocks). His father, Ma Ket [], had arrived in Victoria in 1855 to work as a community leader for the Chinese workers in the goldfields of Victoria. choice would be a controversial play at The Little Theatre,
In a High Court case called Ingham v Hie Lee,11 Ah Ket represented a Chinese laundry owner who was charged with an offence under the Factories and Shops Act 1905 in Victoria. 9The Hon Susan Kiefel AC, Chief Justice of Australia, William Ah Kets contribution to diversity in the legal profession (Asian Australian Lawyers Association, William Ah Ket Scholarship Presentation, Great Hall, High Court of Australia, Canberra, 9 October 2019, 5:30pm). [11] See Toylaan Ah Ket, William Ah Ket - Building Bridges between Occident and Orient in Australia, 1900-1936 (paper delivered at the Conference of the Chinese Studies Association in Australia held at Macquarie University on 5 July 1995), available at https://arrow.latrobe.edu.au/store/3/4/5/5/1/public/stories/wahket.htm. invited scholars from interstate and overseas to deliver the
That includes our servers. He
in 1982 and is currently writing the biography of her father. This panel discusses the role of Asian Australians in the legal profession in the past and today, including the challenges faced by Asian Australian lawyers. The story of William Ah Ket, the first Chinese-Australian barrister. He was a sound lawyer and a good advocate". Life. a full primary and secondary education in Wangaratta's public
AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), abc.net.au/news/william-ah-ket-the-first-chinese-australian-barrister/10160198. Your information is being handled in accordance with the. In addition to lobbying against discriminatory legislation, such as the Immigration Restriction Bill of 1901, William appeared in many cases that we would describe today as public interest cases. [9] (1908) 7 CLR 277. The story of William Ah Ket is a significant one in the history of the Australian legal profession. [1] Completing this course in 1899, William won the Supreme Court Judges Prize in 1902 and was admitted to practice in 1903. Andrew can be contacted ona.godwin@unimelb.edu.au. He built up a successful
"He played the game of affluence and gambling and carding and living it up," she recalled. In his more-than 30-year career, William was never promoted to the rank of senior barrister or appointed judge. Cheong
Despite his high profile and achievements, it would seem that others were advanced while he was not.6 He was neither appointed Silk nor a judge. AALA celebrates and shares in the respect for elders, land and community and continues to advocate for intersectional diversity and the empowerment of all first nations peoples worldwide. He said that "William Ah Ket did not ever sit on the Bench, though he would have been a very competent judge. Their father said "the boys were teasing her and boys tend to do that". In the 1970 book The Measure of the Years by Australia's longest-serving prime minister, Robert Menzies, he referred to his colleague and friend Ah Ket as "a phenomenon at the Victorian Bar" but that "a certain prejudice among clients against having a Chinese barrister to an extent limited his practice . Toylaan, the youngest daughter, died in 2015 at the age of 94. "And if nobody had stood up, like William Ah Ket, to protest against them then they might've passed.". Fast forward to 9 October 2019 when an audience of some 50 persons are gathered in the Great Hall of the High Court of Australia to attend the third award ceremony for the William Ah Ket Scholarship a scholarship established by the Asian Australian Lawyers Association and supported by Maddocks. William Ah Ket was Australia's first barrister of Asian heritage or ethnicity, born in Victoria in 1876. Despite these achievements, William Ah Ket's story is little-known. He completed his articles with the solicitors Maddison &
as Arthur Deane, R.G. He acquired a considerable reputation as a negotiator of settlements. in Little Bourke Street or attending one of the city theatres
William was particularly active in the fight against racial discrimination. The reason why the Chinese laundry owner had been charged was that a Chinese man had been found in the laundry between 9 and 10pm at night ironing a shirt, apparently in breach of the after-hours work prohibition. Despite the bamboo ceiling that William must have encountered during his life and career, it appears that his mission was to remove barriers and, as his daughter Toylaan Ah Ket wrote, to implement his personal philosophy of building bridges between the East and West. His father had taken him to China when he was about five years old. At that time, people born in Australia were British citizens by right, regardless of their parents origins. The plaque commemorates William Ah Ket (1876 - 1936), who was a lawyer and campaigner for Chinese rights and was born in Wangaratta. by Sir Colin MacKenzie and were brought to fruition through
After living in China for many years, he returned to Australia as an adult, but was treated as a prohibited immigrant because he failed a dictation test imposed by the immigration legislation at the time. to Australia, William Ah Ket was appointed as Acting Consul-General
his tertiary studies at Melbourne University, William received
With paternal ancestry from Taishan, southern China, Ah Ket was Australia's first barrister of Asian heritage or ethnicity.He was born on 20 June 1876 at Wangaratta, Victoria, the only son and fifth child of Mah Ket and Hing Ung.He was an alumnus of the University of Melbourne.On 16 November 1912 he married Gertrude Victoria Bullock at the . Williams focus on reconciliation is reflected in the Second Morrison Lecture that he delivered in 1933, where he discussed whether there was a real difference between the culture of the East and that of the West, and drew parallels between Western culture and Confucianism. Australia, by putting into practice his personal philosophy
He said that "William Ah Ket did not ever sit on the Bench, though he would have been a very competent judge. Ah Ket was born in Wangaratta in 1876 and died in 1936. Morrison Lecture was given in 1932 by
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