Larissa Behrendt Stop this Intervention - Indigenous Law Professor & Author Talks Sanity

Accompanied by the sound of rain, Larissa Behrendt (of the Eualeyai/Kamillaroi) talks about the Intervention in the Northern Territory. The date is 20th June, 2009 - which marks the 2nd anniversary of the Australian government's Emergency Response in the NT (2007).

Larissa highlights the (il)legal dimension of the Intervention and the suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA); the strong tradition of Indigenous political struggle in Australia, and the historical parallels between the rhetoric used to justify the Stolen Generations policies and the NT Intervention. 100% Juice.

Larissa is Professor of Law and Indigenous Studies in the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, University of Technology, Sydney. She is also a practising Barrister who has previously worked with the United Nations. She is currently Chair of National Indigenous Television, Director of Bangarra Dance Company and is on the board of the Museum of Contemporary Art. Larissa is also a judicial member of the Administrative Decisions Tribunal and the Serious Offenders Review Council and an Acting Commissioner on the Land and Environment Court, Fellow for the Australian Social Sciences Academy, a Foundation Fellow for the Australian Academy of Law and a member of the ARC College of Experts. She is published on property law, Indigenous rights, dispute resolution and Aboriginal women's issues and is a regular columnist for the National Indigenous Times. Larissa is also an author; 'Home' is her first novel.

Larissa speaking at Amensty International in 2008 - celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights: http://www.amnesty.org.au/wiki/PUBLIC_FORUM_SPEECH:_PROFESSOR_LARISSA_BEHRENDT/

More info on Larissa from Wiki:
Behrendt completed a Bachelor of Laws at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in 1992, and in the same year she was admitted by the Supreme Court of New South Wales to practice as a solicitor. Behrendt then travelled to the United States, where she completed a Master of Laws at Harvard Law School in 1994, and a Doctorate of Laws from the same institution in 1998. In 2000 she was admitted by the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory to practice as a barrister.

During her stay at Harvard Law School, Behrendt also worked in Canada with a range of First Nations organisations. In 1999, she worked with the Assembly of First Nations in developing a gender equality policy, and she also represented the Assembly at the United Nations. Also in 1999, she did a study for the Slavey people comparing native title developments in Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

Since 1998, Behrendt has been a member of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), and was appointed to the Institute's Research Advisory Council in 2000. Between 2000 and 2002, Behrendt worked with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, developing various policies, and in 2000 she worked with Mick Dodson at the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation developing a reconciliation policy and draft reconciliation legislation.

Behrendt has written extensively on legal and indigenous social justice issues. She has published two books, Aboriginal Dispute Resolution (1995)[1] and Achieving Social Justice (2003),[2] and has written many articles for Australian and Canadian legal journals. Behrendt has also written a novel, Home,[3] which won the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, David Unaipon Award in 2002, and the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Novel in the South East Asian/South Pacific region in 2005. She also won the award for outstanding achievement in literature in the 2004 Deadlys. She has been a director of the Sydney Writers' Festival since 2002.

UNSW awarded Behrendt the Alumni of the Year Award in 1993, and she is now a life member of the alumni association. Also in 1993, she was the winner of the Lionel Murphy Foundation Scholarship. In 2002, Behrendt was the co-recipient of the inaugural Neville Bonner National Teaching Award. Behrendt has taught at UNSW, the Australian National University, and the University of Technology, Sydney, where she has been a member of the University's Council since 2002.

visit: www.treatyrepublic.net

Video filmed by Amber Wright, edited by Jordan

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• indigenous
• aboriginal
• northern
• territory
• NT
• australia
• invasion
• intervention
• law
• history
• amnesia
• emergency
• sorry
• apology
• Rudd
• Howard
• Mundine
• Pearson
• Macklin
• racism
• racial
• discrimination
• RDA
• native
• title
• wik
• hindmarsh
• Anaya
• Mabo
• embassy
• treaty
• sovereignty
• stolen
• generations
• colonial
• colonialism
• empire

[askalice50]

The offspring of the stolen generation are articulate and educated. The racist (yes, I said racist) government will soon find that these people won't have the wool pulled over their eyes any longer. And they have more support than the racist government realises.

[TheThirdGerman]

What a bunch of bullshit !

How would you feel if someone that "claimed" to be smarter than you came to your home and took your children to "educate" them ?

Having read your comment I suppose you'd thank them ?

Over thousands of years of culture , knowlegde and pride destroyed because of ignorant (white) people like yourself.

And the same happened in North - and South America , and many other parts of this world.

[buxton59]

@askalice50 - true that - give them time, means & the determination & they will succeed - & the world will know the truth.

[gunailad]

The problems aboriginals face are because of attitudes like logicbeatslies, still running around claiming theroys as realitys, aboriginals were modern humans while the likes of logicbeatslies was still eating raw meat and treating animals like wifes as sub humans do, I love the fact we were the first, first explorers, first astronomer, first sailors, first to have modern burials and cremations, white people owe us big time for showing the white how its done, englands legacy is discusting like u

[MrDaveLogan]

@tdenterprise You won

[MrDaveLogan]

I'm an Aboriginal man living in the city....raising children...paying off a mortgage...dealing with the rising cost of living. I wish I had Bess Price's money. She's doing well for herself. A Walpiri woman bignoting herself on Arrernte land. Her and her white husband teaching cross cultural training to ignorant Federal intervention bureaucrats. Being paid by proxy to support the intervention. If Bess Price had any conviction, she'd go back to Yuendumu and shout her support for the intervention.

[Crystalgirlist]

A strong young Aboriginal woman. This generation will put land rights back on the agenda. [-0-]

[kinabalu1955]

@tdenterprise - the thought that there were children being raped and abused is a terrible one. But what was the extent of the problem, and what was the best way to tackle it.

The sensational claims of rampant pedophillia and child sexual abuse that spurred the NT intervention have not been borne out. There have been no paedophilia rings uncovered, and there haven't even been any child sexual abuse prosecutions as a result of the intervention. Seems the "intervention" was founded on lies!

[emuwren48]

Fun to watch. Almost as entertaining as watching that man and that horse in Deadwood!

[240kankan]

some Australians told me they were inferior to them.what i see here in this vedio is that they are just like us.what they are lack of is education,they are just smart like us if they are educated.take a look at this woman. educated aboriginal people are just like us,being able to reason fairly well .they are human-being like us.Australians'attitude towards them should be adjusted.im not qualified to talk much on this issue since im an outsider.hopefully,they could handle it in near future

[burgertron99]

@tdenterprise

Dear Enterprise

I agree that the issue of the Child abuse and the like that occurred before the intervention is huge and needs to stop.

However I ask you this question do you really feel that the intervention strategies will stop Child abuse.

I once worked for DOCS or the child agency that is there to stop children getting abused and had young people in alternate care arrangements. And guess what they still got abused in the care facilities that were put there to save children.