Tarwirri Celebrates Tekan Cochrane — Finalist for the 2025 Australian Human Rights Law Award

Nominees for the 2025 Australian Human Rights Law Award

Tarwirri proudly celebrates our Executive Officer, Tekan Cochrane, who has been announced as a finalist for the 2025 Australian Human Rights Law Award. This national recognition reflects her outstanding contribution to advancing justice, cultural safety, and systemic reform for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Each year, the Australian Human Rights Commission honours individuals and organisations working to strengthen human rights across Australia. The Law Award recognises a lawyer or legal organisation demonstrating exceptional commitment to protecting and promoting human rights. Out of nearly 300 nominations received in 2025, only a select group of exceptional individuals were shortlisted — and Tekan stands proudly among them.

This year’s Australian Human Rights Awards recognise 20 finalists across five categories. The diversity of nominees demonstrates the many ways human-rights work is carried out in Australia — from legal advocacy and disability rights to climate justice, arts, youth leadership, and community organising.

Law Award Finalists

Tekan is one of four finalists for the 2025 Law Award, alongside:

• Elisabeth Armitage

• Jane Tiller

• Belinda Kochanowska

Together, their work spans judicial inquiry, public health ethics, and community-focused advocacy — a testament to the breadth of legal leadership shaping human-rights outcomes across the country.

What This Recognition Means for Tekan and Tarwirri

For Tekan and for the wider Tarwirri community, being recognised among such a distinguished group is both humbling and deeply meaningful. It highlights the national significance of culturally informed legal leadership and reinforces the essential role First Nations voices play in shaping more just legal systems.

Tekan’s work embodies a commitment to accountability, truth-telling, and the empowerment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples within the justice system. Her recognition as a finalist acknowledges these contributions and affirms the importance of systemic reform driven by lived experience and cultural knowledge.

This milestone is also a reminder that the movement for justice and human rights is collective. Lawyers, artists, youth leaders, advocates, filmmakers, and community workers all play vital roles in shaping the Australia we aspire to become. Tekan’s nomination reflects the strength that emerges when these efforts are grounded in community and guided by First Nations perspectives.

Tarwirri congratulates Tekan on being named a finalist for the 2025 Australian Human Rights Law Award. We are proud of her leadership, her advocacy, and her ongoing commitment to building a more just and culturally safe future for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

You can read more about the Australian Human Rights Law awards at https://humanrights.gov.au/get-involved/australian-human-rights-awards.