This WA student dreaded going to school. Now, she’s studying to be a lawyer

Kyanna Hansen dreaded going to school so much that she argued against it every morning.

When she got to school, she was known for arguing with the teachers too and was told she was “intimidating” – something she said was difficult to hear.

But now Hansen has put that argumentative streak to good use, studying at Murdoch University to become a human rights lawyer.

Second year law student Kyanna Hansen.

“In school I was dealing with some racism from a few teachers and students, whether they would call it that or not,” Hansen said.

“I never purposefully tried to be intimidating, but it was in the way I held myself, how I spoke, stood, walked.”

Hansen barely attended school between years 9 and 11. She moved over to Aotearoa, New Zealand, to live with her aunty and uncle, hoping to find her feet at the school there, but one week after starting, lockdowns began.

“I struggled a lot to even do the readings required for my classes. After the lockdown happened, I was wagging a lot, I never spent a whole day at school because I was bored of it and hated it,” she said.

“I ended up finding an alternative option, and moving back to online, which wasn’t too bad except I ended up getting a full-time job which led to me dropping out officially in year 11. I say I dropped out in year 10 because I never went.”

But despite her experience with education during high school, Hansen is now in her second year at Murdoch University.

“I have always loved to argue, if you couldn’t tell from my high school experience,” she said.

“My whole life I have had a strong moral compass for what is right and wrong, a passion human rights, along with lived experiences and the lack of Aboriginal people in the legal profession, guided me to studying law.”

Hansen joined university through K-Track – a free, 15-week mentor program run through the Kulbardi Aboriginal Centre at the university, designed to help Indigenous students qualify for entry into an undergraduate degree.

“The program has helped me tremendously. I wouldn’t be where I am right now if it wasn’t for K-Track,” she said.

“I am now a second year law student and also now work at Kulbardi, and I couldn’t have done it without Kulbardi and my mum backing me, supporting me, and encouraging me to not give up.”

Murdoch University School of Indigenous Knowledges Dean and associate professor Jenna Woods also entered higher education through K-Track.

“As a young child, I really enjoyed learning, although as I got older and moved into high school I really began to struggle. I had a lot of challenges in my life at the time and I couldn’t see how school was relevant to me,” she said.

Associate Professor Jenna Woods, Dean, School of Indigenous Knowledges at Murdoch University.

“This was further reinforced by poor experiences with various teachers who saw me as a problem rather that a young person with potential.

“I moved through several high schools in quick succession and dropped out several weeks into Year 11. I was really disillusioned with education and it really impacted how I saw myself.”

Now, Woods said she saw others like her coming through the K-Track program and finding their love for learning again.

“I think so many of us internalise the stories that we’ve been told throughout our lives in terms. We feel dumb, we feel not good enough, we feel like we don’t belong,” Woods said.

“I think that’s where Kulbardi and K-Track do really well. They open us up to a world that we didn’t think we belonged in and they show us that we have a place here.”

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