Larissa Behrendt facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Larissa Behrendt AO FASSA FAHA
Behrendt at work in 2012
Born	Larissa Yasmin Behrendt 1969 (age 55–56) Cooma, New South Wales, Australia
Alma mater	University of New South Wales Harvard Law School
Known for	Academic, writer, Indigenous rights advocate, filmmaker

Larissa Yasmin Behrendt is an amazing Australian who was born in 1969. She is a legal expert, a talented writer, a filmmaker, and a strong supporter of Indigenous rights. She used to be a professor of law at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and is now a very respected professor there. She also leads important research programs at the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research at UTS. In 2025, she became the head of the Writing Australia Council.

Larissa's Early Life and School

Larissa Yasmin Behrendt was born in Cooma, New South Wales, in 1969. Her father was an Aboriginal man from the Eualeyai and Kamilaroi peoples. He grew up in an orphanage and later became an air traffic controller. He then became a professor who studied Aboriginal history and culture. He even started a special research center at the University of New South Wales in Sydney in 1988. This was around the time Larissa started studying there.

Larissa's mother was not Indigenous and worked in naval intelligence. Larissa says her family was "very much working-class". Her parents did not follow any religion. When she was in primary school, her family moved to Sutherland Shire.

Larissa's University Studies

After finishing high school at Kirrawee High School, Larissa went to the University of New South Wales. She earned two degrees there in 1992: a Bachelor of Jurisprudence and a Bachelor of Laws. In the same year, she was allowed to work as a lawyer in New South Wales.

She worked for a short time in family law and helped people who needed legal aid. Then, she received a scholarship to study in the United States. She earned a Master of Laws degree from Harvard Law School in 1994. Later, in 1998, she earned a Doctor of Juridical Science from the same university. Larissa Behrendt was the first Indigenous Australian to graduate from Harvard Law School.

She also studied filmmaking! She earned a Graduate Diploma in Screenwriting in 2012 and a Graduate Diploma in Documentary in 2013 from the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS). She also learned about being on company boards in 2013.

Larissa's Career and Work

Working in Law and Education

After finishing her studies at Harvard Law School in the mid-1990s, Larissa worked in Canada for a year. She helped different First Nations groups there. In 1999, she helped the Assembly of First Nations create a policy about gender equality. She also represented them at the United Nations. In the same year, she studied how native title laws worked in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand for the Slavey people.

Larissa returned to Australia and worked as a researcher at the Australian National University. In 2000, she moved to the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). In 2000, she was also allowed to work as a barrister in the Australian Capital Territory. Larissa believes Australia should be a republic, meaning it should not have a king or queen.

From 2001 to 2018, she was a law professor at the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research at UTS. She also directed research and academic programs there from 2001 to 2011. In 2011, she became the first person to hold the Chair of Indigenous Research and continued to direct research programs.

Larissa has helped with many important legal cases for free. These cases involved unfair treatment of Aboriginal people in the justice system. She worked inside the New South Wales prison system from 2003 to 2012, helping to review cases of serious offenders. She has also worked as a judge in different legal areas, including equal opportunity and land cases.

Larissa's Current Academic Roles

As of July 2025, Larissa Behrendt is a very distinguished professor at UTS. She is also a Laureate Fellow at the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning. She continues to be the first Chair of Indigenous Research and Director of Research and Academic Programs, a role she has held since 2011.

Other Important Work

Helping with Education and Community

Larissa has worked hard on issues related to Indigenous education, especially reading and writing. In 2002, she won the first Neville Bonner National Teaching Award. She has been on the board of Tranby Aboriginal College and has been an ambassador for the Gawura Campus. This is an Indigenous primary school at St Andrew's Cathedral School. In 2012, she helped start the Sydney Story Factory, which has a reading and writing program in Redfern.

In April 2011, the federal government asked Larissa to lead a review. This review looked at how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people could get into and succeed in higher education. The report was released in September 2012 and was very well received. It suggested ways to help more Indigenous students go to university and become professionals. The Minister for Tertiary Education, Senator Chris Evans, accepted all the recommendations in the report.

From 2009 to 2012, she also helped lead the City of Sydney's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Panel.

Supporting the Arts

Larissa has been very active in creating and supporting arts groups and projects. She always speaks up for more funding for the arts. She was the first chairperson of National Indigenous Television (NITV) from 2006 to 2009. NITV is the first TV network in Australia just for Indigenous programs.

In 2008, she joined the board of the Bangarra Dance Theatre, and she was its chairperson from 2010 to 2014. She also joined the board of Museums and Galleries NSW in 2012.

Larissa has been on the board of the Sydney Writers' Festival since 2015. She has also been on the board of the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia and led its Indigenous Advisory Panel from 2007 to 2012.

She was a board member of the Australian Major Performing Arts Group (AMPAG) from 2013 to 2014. She was a judge for non-fiction books at the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards from 2013 to 2014. Since 2015, she has been a member of the Australia Council Major Performing Arts Panel.

Writing Books

Larissa Behrendt has written many books about legal issues and social justice for Indigenous people. Some of her non-fiction books include Aboriginal Dispute Resolution (1995) and Achieving Social Justice (2003). In 2005, she helped write the book Treaty.

She has also written three fiction books. Her first novel, Home, won the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards and the David Unaipon Award in 2002. It also won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Novel in her region in 2005. Her second novel, Legacy, won the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Prize for Indigenous Writing in 2010. Her third novel, After Story, was published in 2021.

In 2012, Larissa published Indigenous Australia For Dummies, which helps people learn about Indigenous Australia in an easy way.

On July 1, 2025, she was appointed as the chair of the Writing Australia Council. This group is part of Creative Australia and helps support and promote Australian literature.

Making Films

Larissa Behrendt has written, directed, and produced several documentary films since 2013. These include Innocence Betrayed (2013, writer), In My Blood It Runs (2019, producer), and Maralinga Tjarutja (2020, writer). The film Maralinga Tjarutja is about the British nuclear tests at Maralinga in South Australia. She also worked as an Indigenous consultant for TV documentaries like Australia: The Story of Us in 2015 and Who do you think you are? from 2018 to 2019.

In 2016, Larissa (as director) and Michaela Perske (writer and producer) received funding from the Adelaide Film Festival to work on their documentary project, After the Apology. The film premiered on October 9, 2017. It looks at how more Indigenous children were removed from their families after Kevin Rudd's Apology to Australia's Indigenous peoples. The film won an award for Best Direction of a Documentary Feature Film from the Australian Directors Guild in 2018. It was also nominated for three awards at the 2018 AACTA Awards.

Larissa directed Maralinga Tjarutja, a TV documentary released in May 2020 by Blackfella Films for ABC Television. This film tells the story of the people of Maralinga, South Australia, since the British nuclear tests there in the 1950s. It was shown around the same time as a drama series called Operation Buffalo. This was done to make sure the voices of the Indigenous people from the area were heard. The film shows how strong the Maralinga Tjarutja people are and how they continue to fight for their rights to care for their contaminated land.

In 2020, Larissa worked as a writer for Season 2 of Total Control (a TV series). She also worked as a writer and director on a documentary film called The Fight Together.

In 2021, Larissa released the documentary Araatika: Rise Up!.

In 2024, Larissa worked on and released the documentary One Mind, One Heart. This film tells the story of the long political efforts to protect culture and keep Aboriginal land rights. It does this through the story of the Yirrkala bark petitions.

Working in Radio

Larissa Behrendt hosts a radio program called Speaking Out. This show talks about "politics, arts, and culture from different Indigenous perspectives." You can hear it on ABC Radio National on Fridays at 12 pm (noon) and on ABC Local Radio on Sundays at 9 pm.

Awards and Recognition

Larissa Behrendt is a respected member of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and a founding member of the Australian Academy of Law.

• 1993: Won the Lionel Murphy Foundation Scholarship
• 2002: Co-winner of the first Neville Bonner National Teaching Award
• 2002: Won the David Unaipon Award at the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards for her novel Home
• 2004: Won the 2004 Deadly Award for amazing work in literature
• 2005: Won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize – Best first novel (Asia/Pacific region)
• 2009: Named National NAIDOC Person of the Year
• 2009: Won the Prize for Indigenous Writing at the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards for her novel Legacy
• 2011: Named NSW Australian of the Year
• 2012: Won the AFTRS AW Myer Indigenous Award
• 2018: Won Best Direction of a Documentary Feature Film from the Australian Directors Guild for After the Apology
• 2020: Received the Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AO) award. This was for her "distinguished service to Indigenous education and research, the law and the visual and performing arts."
• 2021: Won the Human Rights Medal
• 2023: Became a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities

Larissa's Personal Life

Larissa Behrendt married American artist Kris Faller in 1997 while she was at Harvard. They separated in a friendly way in 2001 and later divorced.

She had a long relationship with Geoff Scott, who is a senior Indigenous leader. He used to be the CEO of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.

In 2009, Larissa started a relationship with Michael Lavarch, who used to be the Attorney-General of Australia. They got married in 2011.