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Dr Dani Linder

Senior Lecturer

School of Law
Faculty of Business, Economics and Law
dani.linder@uq.edu.au
+61 7 336 56605

Overview

Dr. Dani Linder is a Bundjalung, Kungarakany woman from Grafton, New South Wales, a public lawyer, and a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Queensland, Australia (UQ), where she teaches "Foundations of Law" and "Law and Indigenous Peoples". As an Indigenous legal academic, feminist, and advocate for constitutional reform and political empowerment of First Nations, her research interests include Indigenous self-determination and cultural identity, electoral law and policy reform, Indigenous political participation and representation, comparative constitutional law, and international human rights.

Dr. Linder is an admitted lawyer with a Bachelor of Laws degree, a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice, a Master of Laws degree which specialises in Corporate and Commercial Law and Practice, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Law. Her Ph.D. thesis is titled "The Law and Policy of Indigenous Cultural Identity and Political Participation: A Comparative Analysis between Australia, Canada, and New Zealand". During her Ph.D., Dr. Linder was selected as a 2017 Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate visiting Fellow for Comparative Constitutional Law at the University of Melbourne under Professor Adrienne Stone and soon after, became a commentator on issues of First Nations justice in the national media and scholarly publications.

Research Interests

  • Indigenous political participation and representation
    Dr. Linder welcomes expressions of interest for Research Higher Degree supervision (MPhil or Ph.D.) on a range of topics in Indigenous political participation and representation and recognition. Projects could explore: (i) International and national recognition of Indigenous cultural identity, self-determination, and self-government rights; (ii) Indigenous express and implied constitutional rights that impact Indigenous political participation and representation as expressed and exercised through voting and candidacy; (iii) Indigenous women and the law with a particular focus on Aboriginal women and their experiences with disenfranchisement; (iv) Indigenous citizenship rights, particularly following the Love v Commonwealth; Thoms v Commonwealth High Court Cases,

Research Impacts

Since completing her Ph.D. Dr Linder has published in scholarly journals and edited collections, as well as making submissions for law reform in the field of First Nations justice. Dr. Linder has also served in the Senior Uluru Dialogue Leadership that holds the cultural mandate and authority for the Uluru Statement from the Heart for several years, a role that has seen her travel the country and engage with Indigenous communities and community leaders. Dr. Linder is a leading Indigenous legal advocate for enhancing Indigenous political participation and representation within Australian law and policy decision-making processes within Indigenous, legal, and academic communities as well as in the broader media.

Prior to becoming an Indigenous legal academic, Dr. Linder also previously worked as a lawyer in a number of different areas of law for several Commonwealth and State government agencies. This experience, alongside her grassroots upbringing on Bundjalung land and her connection to her Aboriginal community, and cultural identity, influenced her passion, drive, and commitment to advocating for Indigenous social justice issues and human rights. Dr. Linder has authored on complex constitutional law issues, both alone and in collaboration, numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, an expert analysis report of the consultative process of the government’s co-design process for an Indigenous Voice, op-eds published in national print and online media. Dr. Linder has also presented in a number of webinar series that have discussed the importance of establishing a constitutionally enshrined First Nations Voice to Parliament and she is an experienced commentator in the national media on the Uluru Statement and has presented her scholarship as an expert for the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, various radio and television news broadcasts, at the Sydney Bar Association, before Federal Indigenous Senators and Members of Parliament, the NSW Crown Solicitors Office, multinational corporations and the Cambridge University Decolonizing Criminology Network.

In 2021, when the Morrison government sought to reform the Commonwealth Electoral Law Act 1918 to add further red tape to voter I.D laws which would disproportionately impact Indigenous voter outcomes, Dr. Linder was a prominent Indigenous legal advocate who supported the rejection of that proposal as evidenced through her activism and commentary in The Conversation, The National Indigenous Times, the Western Australian Newspaper, and the Electoral Regulation Research Network. Dr. Linder has also provided expert advice on Indigenous voting and candidacy representation for the UNSW Indigenous Law Centre and Public Interest Advocacy Centre's "Towards Truth" project which is a world first-of-its-kind interactive information database that maps legislation and policies that have impacted upon First Nations’ lives throughout Australian history to enable truth-telling about our history.

Publications

View all Publications

Publications

Book Chapter

  • Roach v Electoral Commissioner [2007] HCA 43

    Larkin, Dani and Crowe, Jonathan (2021). Roach v Electoral Commissioner [2007] HCA 43. Indigenous legal judgments: bringing Indigenous voices into judicial decision making. (pp. 245-259) edited by Heather Douglas and Nicole Watson. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003174349

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Other Outputs

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Links

ORCID: 0000-0002-9200-1208

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