FOR Darwin-based barrister Lyma Nguyen, being recognised as the winner of the 40 Under 40 Most Influential Asian-Australian Award has given her time to take stock.
“The award has really given me an opportunity to actually sit back and reflect on my achievements,” she said.
A human rights champion who has represented Cambodian genocide victims and asylum seekers throughout her career, the 38-year-old said the recognition had provided a chance to share both her childhood story and her ongoing battle for justice.
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Ms Nguyen, who was born to a Vietnamese refugee family in an Indonesian refugee camp while on their way to Australia, grew up in the crime-riddled Brisbane suburb of Darra.
It is clear she has taken incredible insight from those tough beginnings.
“When I was a child (in Darra), there was a lot of drugs and gangs and robberies and things like that,” she said.
“I guess coming from nothing to becoming something,” she said, had carried into her legal work. “Life is not black and white.”
Despite overcoming those hurdles to set herself up as a successful barrister, practising domestically and internationally with a focus on criminal and human rights law, Ms Nguyen said she still faced discrimination day-to-day.
In accepting the award, Ms Nguyen said it was important to recognise that Asian-Australians made up 13 per cent of the country’s population, but less than 4 per cent of its senior leaders.
Ms Nguyen said that even today, what she terms as “judicial bullying” is common and often difficult to discern.
“(Harassment) happens across the board,” she said.
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“I’ve given talks about judicial bullying, because in every other workplace environment that sort of conduct is reprimanded and there’s usually policies to deal with someone who is bullying you or harassing you in the workplace. But in the judiciary … it’s very hard to get heard.”
Ms Nguyen said she hoped the award would inspire other Asian-Australians to speak out against injustice.
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