of the world's most talented classical guitarists. 16Isabel Carter,Woman in a Wig: Joan Rosanove, QC (Lansdowne Press, 1970), 13. One time, boys chased Toylaan and her sister home from Sunday school, throwing stones and calling them "Ching-chong Chinamen". Andrew can be contacted ona.godwin@unimelb.edu.au. Parliament for the new Republic in 1912. 15William Ah Ket, Eastern Thought, with special reference to Confucius (Second Morrison Lecture, 3 May 1933), available at https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/145813/2/Morrison%20Oration%2002.pdf. A former partner of Linklaters Shanghai, Andrew Godwin teaches law at Melbourne Law School in Australia, where he is an associate director of its Asian Law Centre. In addition, he had the advantage
Masonic Lodge No.123 and held life-membership of the MCG so
As the first #ChineseAustralian to join the Victorian Bar, William was born. 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 Victoria. master the Confucian skills of reading and writing in the
his tertiary studies at Melbourne University, William received
Both William Ah Ket and his wife were music-lovers and regular
1901. William was born in 1876, in the north-east Victorian town of Wangaratta one of eight children. He also appeared before Justice Lowe after he was appointed to the Supreme Court of Victoria. The keynote address is delivered by the Honourable Susan Kiefel AC, Chief Justice of The High Court of Australia, who makes the following comments: By all accounts, Mr Ah Ket was a remarkable man. 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. 5 Law Students Society Dinner to Sir Harrison Moore, Farrago 5(5), April 23, 1929. 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. [8] (1912) 15 CLR 267. Th my scam n ni ng r xc phm g cu. eyewitness of the Test matches between England and Australia. William specialised in civil cases, including lawsuits over divorce petitions, wills and contracts. family. Contact Us, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 7. He was born in Victoria in 1876, the only son among six daughters
[1] Helen Penrose, To Build a Firm: The Maddocks Story (Maddocks, 2010), 11[2] See William Lye OAM, Introduction to William Ah Ket at the Victorian Bar and Scholarship (William Ah Ket Inaugural Scholarship Launch at Maddocks, 21 November 2017), available at https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54dd81c6e4b074b4a339bb2e/t/5a1409caf9619a97a1396f77/1511262667464/WILLIAM+AH+KET+launch.pdf. Following his youthful introduction to country horse-racing
But he added: "But do not ever be intimidated or pushed down or give into people who would harass you or tease you and laugh at you. After completing his training as a lawyer in 1899, William won the Supreme Court Judges Prize in 1902, and was admitted to practice in 1903. He served his articles under Richard Cross of the firm then known as Maddock & Jamieson (now Maddocks) in 1903. The Asian Australian Lawyers Association (AALA) offers our respects to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the true and traditional owners and custodians of the lands we gather on to live, work and learn. The legacy of Australia's #firstAsianlawyer, William Ah Ket, who battled #racism and achieved landmark victories, lives on. This article contains content that is not available. He advocated and promoted peaceful coexistence.8 His answer to the difficulties he faced appears to have been to succeed in what he did; to be a real part of the legal profession; to help others and to act at all times righteously, with courage and with kindness. 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. community, such as Quong Tart in Sydney and Cheok Hong. landing at Tarakan. He said that "William Ah Ket did not ever sit on the Bench, though he would have been a very competent judge. William Ah Ket [] was born in Wangaratta in the state of Victoria, Australia, in 1876. Noting that music had a peculiar charm for Confucius, he mused that had Confucius lived then, it is quite likely that he would have found in the music of the bagpipes something particularly stirring and satisfying to the soul.15 William would have had an affinity with bagpipes as his wife, Gertrude Bullock, was of Scottish descent. and Cambridge respectively. After his return
and friendship between the West and the East led him to accept
AUSTRALIA
Ah Ket appeared in another High Court case called Potter v Minahan,[9] where he represented a man born in Australia of a Chinese father and a white Australian mother. "They were about making sure Chinese were on view, they were really pretty abhorrent," she says. 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. It also discusses the importance of cultural diversity in the workplace and within the community, particularly during a time when racism has become more prominent since COVID-19. [9] (1908) 7 CLR 277. they raised a family of two sons and two daughters. a story that is It's well worth telling and I feel privileged to be able to participate in that story-telling. Ah Kets legal team successfully proved that he was not a prohibited immigrant. In an interview with the National Library of Australia in 1993, she remembered her affluent childhood. "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. We should have done Medicine.16, There are many more interesting stories and facts that one could relate about William and his legacy. "But we're living in days of the incarceration of refugees and asylum seekers. William was survived by his wife Gertrude Victoria (nee Bullock) and four children Dr. William, Stanley, Melaan and Toylaan. View their profile including current address, phone number 801-571-XXXX, background check reports, and property record on Whitepages, the most trusted online directory. "William Ah Ket is in his teens at this time and he's being brought up to be a smart, educated young man, so he would've seen all this going on.". After completing his secondary education, he studied law at the University of Melbourne, and joined the law firm of Maddock & Jamieson (now Maddocks). "Rumpole" of the Victorian Supreme Court, gaining
recital, a Gilbert & Sullivan production, a Franz Lehar
Sir Robert Menzies practised with William in Selborne Chambers. "He probably would've seen people that were junior to him progress past him in that career and of course that would've been disappointing to see that, and not be afforded the same opportunities as everyone else," he says. William was educated in Wangaratta, and on gaining his matriculation
However, as Sir Robert Menzies, who was a friend and practised with Mr Ah Ket in Selbourne Chambers, observed [a] certain prejudice among clients against having a Chinese barrister to an extent limited his practice. Fast forward 90 years 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 in 2017 and supported by Maddocks. 14See 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. [5] Citing 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 9.6] The 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). William was particularly active in the fight against racial discrimination and appeared in many 'public interest' cases. William Ah Ket fought social prejudice in and out of court. He completed his articles with the solicitors Maddison &
Andrews new book is a compilation of China Business Law Journals popular Lexicon series, entitled China Lexicon: Defining and translating legal terms. NOTE: The author, Toylaan Ah Ket, is the daughter of William Ah Ket. and their only son, John Williams, has been acclaimed as one
William Ah Ket was Australia's first barrister of Asian heritage or ethnicity, born in Victoria in 1876. to learn the cultural traditions of ancient China, and to
On 16 November 1912 he married Gertrude Victoria Bullock at the Kew Methodist Church. In a passage that is still recognised as current law in Australia, Justice OConnor stated as follow: It isimprobable that the legislature would overthrow fundamental principles, infringe rights, or depart from the general system of law, without expressing its intention with irresistible clearness13. William Ah Ket - A Life of Diversity and Service, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ah-ket-william-4979, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54dd81c6e4b074b4a339bb2e/t/5a1409caf9619a97a1396f77/1511262667464/WILLIAM+AH+KET+launch.pdf, https://arrow.latrobe.edu.au/store/3/4/5/5/1/public/stories/wahket.htm, https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/145813/2/Morrison%20Oration%2002.pdf. 820 Drummond Street Carlton North VIC 3054. William Ah Ket did not ever sit on the Bench, though he would have been a very competent judge. [7] William Ah Ket Scholarship 2019, Program (9 October 2019). He was a leading activist in the campaigns for equal rights for Chinese-Australians at a time when anti-Chinese sentiment ran deep. in Chisholm Street. We should have done Medicine.16, There are many more interesting stories and facts that one could relate about William and his legacy. For the next twenty years he worked tirelessly for the
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