BOOK REVIEW
Title: Pursuing a Vision of Justice: Essays in honour of Maithri Panagoda
Editor: Senaka Weeraratna
Publisher: Vijitha Yapa Publications, 484 pages, price: Rs 5900
Reviewed by Thiru Arumugam
CSA Member Maithri Panagoda is a Lawyer practising in Sydney and this book
is a collection of essays by Judges, colleagues, academics, diplomats, historians,
family and friends, about his life, times and work, compiled and edited by
Senaka Weeraratna, a friend of his since their law faculty days at the University
of Ceylon. Of the 25 essay contributors in the book, six are members of CSA.
The Sydney launch of the book was on 30 September 2022 in the Strangers
Room of New South Wales (NSW) Parliament with Her Excellency the
Honourable Margaret Beazley, the State Governor, as the Chief Guest and
Keynote Speaker.
Maithri grew up in the village of Wathumulla, which is about four km
from Gampaha. In 1961 he entered Ananda College for his secondary
education. He was editor of the Sinhala section of the school Magazine and in
his final year in school he won the two gold medals that were on offer. He
entered the Law Faculty of the University of Ceylon, Colombo Campus in 1969
and graduated with a LL.B. degree in1972. In the following year he was
admitted as an Attorney-at-Law to the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka.
In 1975 he proceeded to UK for post-graduate studies and there that he
met Ramya Nanayakkara, a fellow Lawyer. They were married in 1977 and in
1981 they decided to migrate to Australia. They arrived in Sydney and Maithri
applied for 42 jobs but each time he was not selected on the grounds that he did
not have any NSW legal experience.
He responded to an advertisement for a Solicitor by the Western
Aboriginal Legal Services (WALS) who are based in Dubbo, a town 400 km
north-west of Sydney with a present population of about 40,000. He arrived for
the interview on a hot summer’s day dressed in a three-piece suit and found that
most of twelve Aboriginal members of the interview board were dressed in T-
shirts and shorts! Although he was the only non-Caucasian candidate, he was
offered the job which he accepted. He and his family moved to Dubbo in 1981.
He worked in WALS for seven years for Aboriginal clients mainly in
civil matters such as debt, social security, tenancy, discrimination, false