Approval for a court sitting on Country would be a monumental step towards justice for Aboriginal people, an Indigenous woman facing trespass charges says.
Ruth Langford is accused of two counts of trespass and one of failing to comply with a request from an authorised officer over two anti-logging protests in 2025 in Tasmania.
The Yorta Yorta and Dja Dja Wurrung woman has applied in Hobart Magistrates Court for evidence to be heard on Country in what is understood to be a state first.
Langford appeared in court on Friday, with Chief Magistrate Catherine Geason set to deliver a decision on the application on April 20.
"This could be a monumental time, for one step towards justice for our people," Langford said outside court, adding she was hopeful her request would be granted.
"I'm being made to come to them. I'm happy to do that … but our law still exists.
"Our community is still connected to law and Country. It makes sense the court offers us equal due respect."
Langford said a very generous invitation for evidence to be heard at Aboriginal-owned Piyura Kitina at Hobart's Risdon Cove had been provided to the court.
A venue at the cove belonging to the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre had adequate audio visual equipment to host, she said.
The cove, which was returned to the Aboriginal community in 1995, was site of a 1804 massacre by colonisers.
Langford told the court it was preferable for Ms Geason to be on Country in person so the magistrate could have a greater understanding of why she was defending the forest.
The application was not opposed by prosecution lawyer Deanne Earley, who said there were examples of courts sitting in regional areas.
Langford accepted court security would have to be present but proposed to restrict it to one room where evidence would be heard.
Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre's Nala Mansell said an on Country hearing would be a great symbolic gesture.
"Laws were set up on Aboriginal lands based on the needs of white people," she said outside court.
"They were never set up to protect Aboriginal heritage, or the forests or our rights."
A hearing date was slated for early July, but one of the trespass charges could be dropped depending on the outcome of an appeal by former Greens leader Bob Brown in another matter.
"I am not a criminal. I am a protector of Country," Langford, who has pleaded not guilty and is self-representing, said.
"This is an opportunity for a pathway through. I'm not there fighting, I'm there guiding. We must assert that there has to be another way through."
