Tilé and Olly Meets

This week’s bonus episode is with Trina Faaiuaso. Faith and family are the guiding lights for Trina in everything she does and are the foundation on which she stands.

Trina graduated with a Bachelor of Justice Studies (Critical Criminology) in 2003 and a Bachelor of Laws in 2010 from the Queensland University of Technology (“QUT”). While working as a public servant, Trina obtained her Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from QUT in 2011. Trina has extensive legal experience in advocacy and litigation, predominately in human rights and legal matters relating to children and young people in the child protection system and adults with impaired capacity.

Trina’s Christian faith and passion for serving others includes volunteering as a youth leader and Sunday School teacher for the Logan City Congregational Christian Church of Samoa in Australia Inc. Trina is also one of the founding members for the Pasifika Lawyers Association of Queensland Inc (“PLAQ”), which is a multicultural Association of Pacific Island lawyers, law students, legal or justice professionals in Queensland. Trina was previously the PLAQ’s treasurer for several years and was recently appointed as President for PLAQ late last year. A key initiative of PLAQ in 2023, is co-delivering the inaugural international Pasefika Collective Conference in Samoa in July 2023.

Trina is also a co-founder of Pasifika Autism Village Support Group (PAVSG) which is currently operating in Queensland (Qld) and New South Wales (NSW) with the goal of expanding across Australia. Trina is blessed with two amazing autistic blessings. Her nine year old nephew, Leviticus, an autistic non verbal amazing little human who inspires her to do better because he can, and his four year old sister, Hadassah, who inspires her to not allow the world to define how loud she can be.

In this week’s episode, we speak to the delightful Chinyere Kalu, affectionately known as Chi.

There is an African proverb that says, “When sleeping women wake, mountains move.” That is, when a woman becomes aware of her own power and potential, she will be able to accomplish great things. This perfectly describes our guest, Chi, from Nigeria in West Africa who belongs to the Ibo tribe, one of the three main tribes in Nigeria. She is a woman with inner strength and resilience, with a witty sense of humour whom did not allow the naysayers to have the last say on the trajectory of her career and passions.

Chi is a family lawyer and author with a particular passion for helping people experiencing family violence. She arrived in Australia in 2007 having qualified as barrister and solicitor in Nigeria. Despite the obstacles, she continued to pursue her legal career when she moved to Australia and has carved out a niche as a successful family and domestic violence lawyer. She was admitted to practice as a solicitor in Queensland in 2010 and obtained her Masters of Law in 2012.

She has worked in Community Corrections, with legal roles in Legal Aid Queensland, private practice, and Community Legal Services. She is a two-time Finalist in the Not-for-Profit Lawyer of the Year category - Women in Law Awards and an inductee in the Queensland Government Domestic and Family Violence Honour Roll.

During the podcast, we discuss that she is a published children’s book author. Her debut book is titled ‘Africa Day’ and can be purchased from Little steps publishing. https://www.littlesteps.com.au/books/africa-day. When Chi is not working, she is a mother of two boys and loves spending time with her family. She is an avid reader, singer and says her best memories were formed as a child when she explored classic storybooks and diverse African literature as a pupil. We hope you enjoy our conversation with Chi.

This week we surprise you with a special bonus episode of ‘Tilé and Olly Meets’ podcast where we meet Terry Stedman, or Uncle Terry to his mob and family. Terry is a First Nations and Kamilaroi award winning lawyer who wears many hats in his community and in the legal sector. In this episode, he shares about some of his work, his previous life as a plumber and in corrective services where he also served as a commissioner for a period of time. Terry has an atypical entry point into law, in fact he had multiple entry points into the law, all of which are a great reminder of how law intersects with various parts of our everyday lives and that the study or practice of law should be accessible for all whom want to partake in our great profession.

Terry has enjoyed a wide range of life experiences, simultaneously devoting enormous time and energy to the community. Terry has served on numerous boards throughout his career, including time with Welfare Rights Qld (now Basic Rights) and the Stolen Wages committee with DATSIP. Terry was awarded twice at the 2018 Queensland Law Society Awards, and received both the Community Legal Centre Member of the Year and the Equity Advocate Award for his service to the community. Terry currently works as a seniors legal advice service solicitor and serves as duty lawyer in the domestic violence and family Courts.

We could have talked to Terry for hours – and this was reflected in that we continued to chat for another hour or so after we turned off our microphones.

In this episode of the ‘Tilé and Olly Meets’ podcasts, we meet with her Honour Magistrate Dzenita Balic. Her Honour shares some of her experiences escaping Bosnia and Herzegovina as a refugee, her early childhood experiences navigating life in Australia to her career in law. Digressions include raising an Australian child, her Honour's love of dictionaries as she learned English, and also her love of Turkish cuisine. This was a very heart-filled and very informative conversation.

Her Honour Magistrate Balic finished Law and Business in 2005 when she commenced with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) in the same year as a clerk. She was admitted in 2006 and became counsel for the Crown in 2008. Prior to that, she was a lawyer between 2006 and 2008. Her Honour prosecuted jury trials and sentences. She became the head of a chamber in Ipswich and then Brisbane where she prosecuted mainly Supreme Court trials and sentences and appeals. She was lead appellate counsel for 18 months where her Honour did most of the appellate work on behalf of the ODPP. She was appointed a Queensland Magistrate in January 2022.

Her Honour arrived in Australia in 1996 as a refugee, who had fled war torn Bosnia and Herzegovina. She studied English, like many other refugees and migrants, upon her arrival in Brisbane. She is also a mother to a seven year old boy. She shares frankly about some of these experiences during our discussion and for that, we are grateful. We know that her story will resonate with many of our listeners.

During our conversation, her Honour discusses the Equal Treatment Benchbook located on the Queensland Courts website: https://www.courts.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/94054/s-etbb.pdf.

In this episode of 'Tilé and Olly Meets', your hosts meet with Linda Cho. A Brisbane based criminal defense lawyer. She shares some of her story of growing up in Brisbane after migrating here from South Korea. Digressions include mangosteens, the best eats in Cairns and some beautiful advice she received from a mentor. This was our first ever interview and Linda was such a gracious guest. We hope you enjoy our conversation as much as we did.

About Linda

During the episode, Linda discusses the Office of the Special Commissioner, Equity and Diversity. More information about this can be found here.

We introduce ourselves, our podcast and our 'why'. In particular, we discuss why we wanted to explore the topic of 'diversity'. Digressions include not knowing the national anthem, our pacific connection and more. This was our first ever recording. Off-line, we wrestled about whether to publish this episode or re-record it. We decided to publish it, warts and all, because we want to look back on this journey one day and laugh at how much we talk too fast or had no idea about how microphones work. These were the immediate lessons we learned after hearing this episode back.