thelma schwartz

Thelma Schwartz is the Principal Legal Officer of the Queensland Indigenous Family Violence Legal Service (QIFVLS), an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisation providing legal and non-legal support services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander victims and survivors of family violence and sexual assault in Queensland. Thelma is a legal practitioner with more than 24 years post-admission experience and identifies as of Torres Strait Islander heritage alongside her German, Samoan and Papua New Guinean heritage. Thelma has worked extensively with and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in regional and remote Queensland, in both capacities representing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander defendants in the criminal justice system as well as advocating for victims and survivors of family violence and sexual assault. Thelma served as a member of the Queensland Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce, which produced the Hear Her Voice Reports 1 and 2 and is a current member of the Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Panel as well as the co-chair of the Justice Policy Partnership Cross Agency Working Group in Queensland.