Northern Territory Supreme Court justices have taken the defendant's dock and put interpreters in charge in an unusual role reversal to highlight the difficulties for non-English speakers in court.

The role-playing is part of a Language and Law Conference that focuses on issues that arise when interpreting languages spoken in the NT.

In one scenario, Acting Judge Dean Mildren sat in the dock accused of going to an Aboriginal community without the tribe's permission, which is a crime in some clans.

The court proceedings were in Yolngu Matha, which is the language spoken by communities in north-east Arnhem Land.

Derrick Hunt from the Aboriginal Interpreters Service (AIS) translated the proceedings for Justice Mildren.

"It gives other people an insight into how Aboriginal people feel when they're in the legal system or when they don't understand English properly," he said.

"I think the whole point of this conference is to raise awareness on the language difficulties that Aboriginal people have in the English world, but it also helps the professionals engage with Aboriginal people a bit better."

In another scenario, Justice Judith Kelly was questioned by police in Indonesian, accused of hitting an officer during an altercation.

The court proceedings used humour to draw attention to common misconceptions by judges when defendants use a language interpreter.

"Surely if I allow him to have an interpreter, I'm just rewarding him for not learning Yolngu Matha properly?" the mock judge said in the Aboriginal language.

"If he keeps coming back often enough, he will definitely learn to speak Yolngu Matha."

A translator takes on the role of NT Supreme Court judge. ( ABC: Avani Dias )

Many Supreme Court judges watched the role-play and Acting Justice Mildren said the need for interpreters was often undervalued.

"It highlighted the attitude of many judges that you don't need interpreters and having an interpreter sort of holds everything up," he said.

Acting Justice Mildren said he was lost for the first half of the proceedings, and at times there were misunderstandings between what he was trying to communicate and what was relayed to the judge.

"It serves to remind us all to think carefully when we're dealing with non-English speaking backgrounds, whether they're Aboriginal or any other culture," he said.

"They have a right to understand everything that's going on, they have a right to be heard properly through either themselves or their lawyers, and they have a right to communicate with their lawyer when they have to in order to explain something."

Mr Hunt called for judges and lawyers to speak conversationally in court when dealing with people who do not speak English.

"It's meaning-based, you don't interpret the words in the sentence, you interpret the whole meaning of that sentence," he said

"Judges, lawyers, and professionals have this legal jargon and they like to talk in that legal jargon, your normal person on the street doesn't understand that stuff.

"Simplifying it and going a bit slower that would help," he said.