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. In 2018 Thelma was awarded the Regional Woman Lawyer of the Year by the Women Lawyers Association of Queensland. She was also an award finalist in the Lawyers Weekly Women in Law Awards in 2019 and 2020 in the categories of Indigenous Lawyer of the Year, Not-for-Profit Lawyer of the Year and the Women in Law Excellence Award in 2019. In 2021, Thelma was awarded the Advancement of Women Award from the Zonta Club of Brisbane and in 2021 Thelma was also awarded the Lawyers Weekly Women in Law Awards 201 Indigenous Lawyer of the Year. 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.
Thelma Schartz
