Aboriginal activist guest speaker at Southern Cross University

Aboriginal activist, novelist and Professor of Law, Larissa Behrendt will be the guest speaker at the first of the 2005 Southern Cross University Leadership@Lunch series, on Thursday, May 12.

Professor Behrendt is a Professor of Law at the University of Technology, Sydney, and has been hailed as one of the new generation of Aboriginal activists.

Her first novel, Home, a story which traces the life of an Aboriginal woman stolen from her family, was published in 2004 and was named Best First Book regional winner for the 2005 Commonwealth Writers' Prize.

Professor Behrendt has worked as a practicing lawyer in the area of Aboriginal land claims and family law and has taught at the University of New South Wales and the Australian National University Law schools. She holds law degrees from the University of NSW and Harvard, and has worked in Canada and with the United Nations.

She is a member of the NSW Aboriginal Justice Advisory Committee and the Serious Offenders Review Council, as well as numerous other organisations.

She proposes longer term initiatives leading to institutional change, that will facilitate greater rights protection and the exercise of self-determination.

Professor Behrendt will be speaking on Thursday, May 12, at Zest, Campus Central, Lismore. Cost is $40. For information contact Donna McIntyre on 662003503 or email dmcintyr@scu.edu.au