Larissa Behrendt is an Eualeyai/Kamillaroi woman. She is the Professor of Law and Director of Research at the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning at the University of Technology, Sydney. But that’s just her day job. She is also an award-winning novelist and filmmaker. Her first novel ‘Home’ won the David Unaipon Prize for unpublished Indigenous author and she followed it up with the brilliant ‘Legacy’.
She joined Amy McQuire on the programme to talk about her latest book “Finding Eliza: Power and Colonial Storytelling”. More than a decade in the making, the book debunks the white mythology built up around Eliza Fraser, who was marooned on ‘Fraser Island’ off the Queensland coast, and taken in by the Butchella people. Her story became infamous and she embellished it for profit, characterising the local mob as savages and primitive. The reality was much different. In the book, Prof Behrendt gives voices to the local Butchella people, who a very different view of Eliza… many of whom believe her story lead to the dispossession of their tribe from their traditional lands.
Prof Behrendt also talks about her recent Walkley award-nominated documentary “Innocence Betrayed”, about the continuing injustice surrounding three Aboriginal children who were murdered on Bowraville mission from 1990-1991. The families of those children are still fighting to get the alleged killer back in court.
You can find out more about Finding Eliza and where to purchase it here.
