2024/25: Bringing Justice Home with Judge Abby Abinanti

Judge Abby earned her Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of New Mexico School of Law, and she has served as a judge on the Yurok Tribal Court since 1997. She became the Chief Tribal Court Judge in 2007, a position she held in conjunction with her Superior Court assignment until 2015. Throughout her tenure as Chief Tribal Court Judge, Judge Abby worked to build a judicial system based on the Yurok cultural value system of “responsibility to and responsibility for.”

The Yurok Tribal Court, well known to be very highly effective, is specifically designed to serve Native Americans by prioritizing cultural practices and healing. Judge Abby worked in collaboration with and supported by her colleagues and the Tribe to build the Tribal Court as part of a larger judicial system, which has grown to include Yurok-centered environmental, fishing, family law, civil law and protective orders. The Wellness Court, the most expansive judicial program in this system, includes California's first tribal child support program as well as family, adult and juvenile wellness courts. The Yurok Court has also developed the first California Batterer Intervention Program, which is state certified, allowing State Courts to order defendants to a culturally appropriate rehabilitation program. Judge Abby has also focused her work in the Murdered & Missing Indigenous People (MMIP) crisis, which has disproportionately impacted women in the Yurok Tribe. Through her innovative and holistic approaches to criminal justice, she has led the way to significantly expanding services and programs available to combat the MMIP crisis.

With the presentation of the Jack P. Blaney Award for Dialogue, Simon Fraser University honours Judge Abby Abinanti’s transformative approaches in providing a model for criminal-justice reform, and recognized her unparalleled dedication to reinstating Indigenous and Yurok cultural values of respect, community support and responsibility, and collective healing for victims, perpetrators and the circle of lives they touch.