Martin Chemnitz Kriewaldt was the sole Judge of the Northern Territory Supreme Court between 1951-1960. During his time on the bench he presided over 39 murder cases when most judges of the time would expect to hear no more than 10. This period saw many important, colourful and controversial characters appear before him, including Olive Pink, Ted Egan, Tiger Lyons and Albert Namatjira. The Namatjira case was a particularly famous case in Australian legal history, which saw Namatjira receive a prison sentence for sharing rum with his cousin. This case became a test case for the assimilation policy and the prohibition on Aboriginal drinking. Namatjira and Kriewaldt were both Lutherans with strong connections to the Lutheran mission at Hermannsburg. They died within months of each other. Namatijira’s death, not long after his sentence was imposed, was attributed to sorcery. It was suggested that Kriewaldt never came to terms with Namatjira’s fate. Kriewaldt died suddenly within 9 months of passing sentence on Namatjira.

Kriewaldt’s work broke new ground in legal thinking on Indigenous criminal issues. Many of his cases involved questions of customary law. He was constantly challenged by the relationship between customary law and criminal responsibility and the role of customary law in mitigating sentence. In order to deal with some of these challenges, he developed various legal principles, some of which remain important today. He challenged the role of juries in cases involving Indigenous people and made suggestions for a Native Court, a forum that was eventually developed. His judgements in a series of cases involving cattle thefts and assaults by stockmen on Aboriginal people brought him International recognition. Kriewaldt was an important figure throughout the 1950s; he was highly regarded and respected by many Aboriginal people and white Australians, senior political figures and locals; one person has described him as a ‘fearless, fair and good judge’ who combined ‘justice with mercy’ in his approach to dealing with Aboriginal defendants.