We are NATSILS, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services. We represent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (ATSILS) around the country. We strive towards true justice for our communities built on community, culture and empowerment.
We advocate at the national and international level to reimagine the justice system, for the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples within the justice system, and work to ensure that our people have equitable access to justice.
Our members have over 50 years’ experience in providing culturally safe legal help, community legal education, law reform and advocacy to our communities. Self-determination and cultural safety underpins everything we do.

What We Do

NATSILS advocates at the national and international level for the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples within the justice system, for an end to injustices and for our people to have equitable access to justice.

We collaborate and coordinate with the legal assistance sector, national coalitions like Change the Record and the Coalition of Aboriginal Peak Bodies

NATSILS calls for law reform and policy change like the implementation of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody recommendations and the Australian Law Reform Commission’s Pathways to Justice Inquiry so that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People are treated safely, with humanity and with dignity.

We coordinate and support ATSILS to provide community controlled, representative, high quality and accountable legal services that are culturally safe. This includes by sharing best practice and facilitating coordinated approaches.

NATSILS is the national peak body of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services who operate across Australia.

NATSILS members include:

Latest

MEDIA RELEASE: Entirely untrue – federal government’s response to open letter ignores legal advice

The government’s response to an open letter from hundreds of organisations released today is entirely untrue and ignores legal advice obtained and shared with the Prime Minister last year.

MEDIA RELEASE: 200-plus organisations and leaders urge PM to call emergency youth justice summit

206 organisations and leaders from across civil society have penned an open letter to the Prime Minister, urging him to call an emergency summit on youth justice where governments can listen to the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal experts and leaders.

States and territories outright rejecting CTG commitments, new data shows

The latest Closing the Gap update shows that without decisive action from the Albanese Government, there is no hope for reaching Australia’s 2031 targets, says the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (NATSILS).

PM glosses over child incarceration crisis – not good enough

The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (NATSILS) says theFederal Government’s failure to acknowledge the mass incarceration of Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander people in yesterday’s annual Closing the Gap update is not goodenough.

MEDIA RELEASE: AIC confirms punitive bail laws driving First Nations over-imprisonment

A new study from the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) confirms what Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services have been warning for years: a dangerous push towards punitive bail laws from state and territory governments has hit First Nations people the hardest.

NATSILS Media Release: “Our people are paying with their lives”: Aboriginal deaths incustody reach record high

The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (NATSILS) extends its condolences to families and communities who have lost loved ones to deaths in custody, following news that Australia has recorded the highest number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths in custody in at least four decades.