Distinguished legal academic, writer, film maker and Indigenous rights advocate Professor Larissa Behrendt AO will present the third annual Margaret Henry Memorial Lecture online on November 5. The lecture is titled Aboriginal Lives Matter: Stopping the Next Stolen Generation and Professor Behrendt will focus on the “alarming” rate of child removal from Indigenous families and strategies to address this.
Says Behrendt: “The Black Lives Matter movement has focused attention on incarceration rates and deaths in custody, but just as important is keeping Aboriginal children with their families. The rate of Indigenous child removal has almost doubled since the Apology in 2008. This trend and the implications are alarming. The best strategy for addressing the issue is one of self-determination and placing the voices of Indigenous people at the centre rather than the margins.”
Professor Behrendt is a Eualayai/Gamillaroi woman and the director of Research and Academic Programs at the Jumbunna Institute of Indigenous Education and Research at UTS. She is a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and a founding member of the Australian Academy of Law.
She is also an award-winning author and has published numerous textbooks on Indigenous legal issues. In 2018 she won Australian Directors Guild Award for Best Direction of a Documentary Film for After the Apology. Her most recent documentary, Maralinga Tjarutja, was broadcast on the ABC in 2020. Professor Behrendt was awarded the 2009 NAIDOC Person of the Year award and 2011 NSW Australian of the Year. She hosts Speaking Out on ABC Radio.
The late Margaret Henry worked tirelessly mentoring indigenous students and had an active involvement in the establishment of indigenous studies at the University of Newcastle
Both Greens MP David Shoebridge and Professor John Maynard will provide introductory and preliminary comment at the lecture. David Shoebridge MLC has advocated in the NSW Parliament against the continuation of a Stolen Generations sentiment. University of Newcastle academic John Maynard is the former Director of the Wollotuka Institute.
The inaugural Margaret Henry Memorial Lecture was presented in 2018 by Renew Newcastle founder Marcus Westbury and was organised by family and friends of Margaret Henry who died in 2015. The former University of Newcastle academic and Newcastle City Council deputy mayor was well-known for leading community campaigns on a range of issues including heritage conservation, education, environmental protection, education and the preservation of the heavy rail line and Laman Street figs. In 2016, Henry was posthumously made a Freeman of the City, Newcastle’s highest civic honour.
The free lecture will be held from 7pm on November 5. Register at: https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing?eid=671527&
For more details about the lecture and to arrange an interview with Larissa Behrendt please contact Rosemarie Milsom on 0403 041 588.
