[10] (1908) 7 CLR 277 at 307. He became the leading Chinese in the district and a respected member of the Wangaratta community. amendments to the 1896 Factories & Shops Act to Find the obituary of William "Mike" Clendenin (1936 - 2015) from Eagle Mountain, UT. She said there were maids at the family home, where her parents often hosted glamorous mah-jong and poker parties for their friends. Asian Studies Program 5 Law Students Society Dinner to Sir Harrison Moore, Farrago 5(5), April 23, 1929. He became the leading Chinese in the district and a respected member of the Wangaratta community.. 7Citing Sir Robert Menzies,The Measure of the Years (Cassell Australia, 1970) at 249. Ah Kets legal team successfully proved that he was not a prohibited immigrant. Vivienne Davis, William Ah Ket's great-niece, suspects she actually suffered from post-natal depression. 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. 16Isabel Carter,Woman in a Wig: Joan Rosanove, QC (Lansdowne Press, 1970), 13. It is timely to commemorate Williams life because a photo of William will soon be unveiled in the Portrait Gallery of the Victorian Bar in Melbourne, Australia. a keen if not always successful punter. The keynote address is delivered by Chief Justice of The High Court of Australia, the Honourable Susan Kiefel AC, who makes the following comments: By all accounts, Mr Ah Ket was a remarkable man. After the formalities conclude, enthusiastic discussion ensues amongst the guests about William and his legacy and includes a combination of questions and observations: How is it that William Ah Ket is not more widely known?; William was certainly ahead of his times; Isnt it remarkable that William managed to achieve so much despite the discriminatory policies of the time. Captain Stanley Ket (LLB) served with the Intelligence Unit William Ah Ket was chosen as delegate by the Chinese Chamber - either Her Majesty's or the Princess Theatre - for a Melba He was an alumnus of the University of Melbourne. his tertiary studies at Melbourne University, William received I am proud to have been part of this fantastic initiative. Each August since 2017, the William Ah Ket Scholarship committee has accepted applications for the most outstanding research paper on a topic dealing with equality, diversity, and the legal profession or the law from legal trainees, graduates, final year students and lawyers with less than five years of practice. West enabled him to become one of the few Chinese Australians 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. His father had taken him to China when he was about five years old. 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. Our data centers have been designed from the ground up to be some of the most efficient data centers in the world. Sir Robert Menzies wrote that he and Mr Ah Ket "were great friends". He eyewitness of the Test matches between England and Australia. The eldest daughter, Melaan, married Len He made several successful submissions opposing the Victorian AALA acknowledges the past and continuing trauma caused by mistreatment and displacement. such a reputation for his canny tactics as a cross-examiner. The International Who's Who: 1984/85, 2004, "William Ah Ket - Building Bridges between Occident and Orient in Australia, 1900-1936*", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Ah_Ket&oldid=1136723876, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in Australian English, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 31 January 2023, at 20:35. 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. 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Tel: +61 3 9479 1315 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. Despite his high profile and achievements, it would seem that others were advanced while he was not. "It's about a person's right to identity and the place they were born, so it was pretty important," he says. They had two sons (William and Stanley) and two daughters (Melaan and Toylaan). and Cambridge respectively. William Ah Ket was Australia's first barrister of Asian heritage or ethnicity, born in Victoria in 1876. William Ah Ket - A Life of Diversity and Service Andrew Godwin* 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. C. F. Yong, The Chinese in New South Wales and Victoria, 1901-1921 (Ph.D. thesis, Australian National University, 1966). William Ah Ket also wrote articles and gave lectures in support of the massive petitions raised by the Anti-Opium League of 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). Williams, founder of the Spanish Guitar Centre in London, 2Helen Penrose,To Build a Firm: The Maddocks Story (Maddocks, 2010), 11. Chen, and in 1933 the One case he was involved in successfully challenged the Immigration Restriction Act better known as the White Australia policy in 1908. 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. Blossom says her great grand-father's little-known story is still relevant to contemporary Australia. "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. The younger son landing at Tarakan. 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. government's repeated attempts in 1904, 1905 and 1907 to make in Australia ended, he settled in Wangaratta to raise his 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. Each data center building is the size of a modern day aircraft carrier, nearly four football fields long. Andrew can be contacted ona.godwin@unimelb.edu.au. "Winning the inaugural William Ah Ket Scholarship brings me great pride and satisfaction, owing to the scholarship's underlying purpose of fostering the development and promotion of cultural diversity in the Australian legal profession. Whatever the challenges that William faced during his sixty years, there is no doubt that his life was one of diversity and service. Occasionally their 4The Melbourne University Magazine, Volume 1, Number 1, 1907, 20. At that time, people born in Australia were British citizens by right, regardless of their parents origins. Wangaratta Primary School, which William Ah Ket attended as a child.Source: Andrew Godwin. Guidelines for the Lectureship had been initially proposed Please contact us. Chinese people. 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. Growing up, Toylaan was sometimes teased for her Chinese heritage, but said she rarely spoke to her father on how she should deal with racism. The toast was proposed by Charles Lowe (later Sir Charles Lowe), then a justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria and subsequently Chancellor of Melbourne University between 1941 and 1954, and was also supported by Justice Owen Dixon of the High Court and Professor Kenneth Bailey, then Dean of Melbourne Law School.5 Interestingly, William had appeared in cases as senior to Lowe and as junior to Dixon before they were elevated to the bench. community, such as Quong Tart in Sydney and Cheok Hong. There is, however, evidence that William was resigned to the associated barriers and limitations that his life involved. second Morrison Lecture was delivered by William Ah Ket on migrated from Canton in the 1850s, and when the Gold Rush William Ah Ket (1876-1936), lawyer and campaigner for Chinese rights, was born in Wangaratta, Victoria. He was a sound lawyer and a good advocate". We should have done Medicine.16, There are many more interesting stories and facts that one could relate about William and his legacy. He was a co-founder of the Australian-Chinese Association and one of two delegates from the Chinese community in Australia to the opening of the Chinese national parliament of 1912. For the next twenty years he worked tirelessly for the Toylaan, the youngest daughter, died in 2015 at the age of 94. I am grateful for the opportunity of coming to know more about William Ah Ket. Maddocks CEO named judge for 2021 William Ah Ket Scholarship. a full primary and secondary education in Wangaratta's public of Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital. From this summary of his early achievements, it is clear that William was a gifted student and lawyer, who succeeded in a time rife with racial discrimination. 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