WHY YOU NEED TO MAKE A WILL

Kerri Evangelista and Robyn Ayres in Ngaarda Media studios this week.

GEOFF VIVIAN

Aboriginal people need to make a will if they have property to leave to their children, Arts Law Centre chief executive Robyn Ayres said.

“For example one of your children might have been adopted from some family member or someone who passed away and you brought their kids up,” she said. “And you might want to include them and they might not be normally included in terms of who would inherit from you. So you can include things the right way culturally.”

Ms Ayres said they also needed to have a will if they had no property, for things like funeral arrangements.

“We know that that can cause lots of problems with families when someone passes away and it’s not clear where they want to be laid to rest,” she said. “And so a will is an opportunity for you to be tell your family what you want to happen and avoid those fights that might happen.”

She and lawyer Kerri Evangelista are giving free legal advice about wills for Aboriginal people in Roebourne today, in Karratha for the rest of this week, and South Hedland from Wednesday to Friday.