Lunchtime Conversation 2021: Professor Larissa Behrendt AO and Dr Jason DeSantolo

Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt AO and Dr Jason DeSantolo explore the legacy of David Unaipon and how traditional systems and knowledge are helping solve contemporary issues.

David Unaipon’s achievements reflect his tireless and lifelong commitment to the pursuit of knowledge. An inventor of machines, an author of ethnographic and literary work, and lecturer on religion and philosophy as a travelling preacher, he existed within, between and as a result of both Western and First Nations knowledges.

Dr Jason DeSantolo is an innovator for today. His wide-ranging and unique research practice integrates video, storytelling and practices of renewal to bring Indigenous world views of culture, knowledge and understanding to the fore. Join Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt AO and Dr DeSantolo as they consider how today’s innovators are looking to traditional understandings of natural, social, and spiritual worlds to find solutions for contemporary issues – and to view Unaipon’s significant accomplishments from another perspective.

Dr Jason De Santolo

Dr Jason De Santolo (Garrwa and Barunggam) is a researcher and creative producer. Jason co-edited Decolonizing Research: Indigenous storywork as methodology with Jo-Ann Archibald and Jenny Lee-Morgan which was published by Zed Books in 2019. Warburdar Bununu/Water Shield is his latest documentary, produced by Browncabs it explores water contamination in Borroloola, NT. Jason is currently Assoc. Prof in the School of Design, University of Technology Sydney (UTS).

Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt AO

Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt is a Eualayai/Gamillaroi woman and the Director of Research and Academic Programs at the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning at the University of Technology, Sydney. She is a graduate of the UNSW Law School and has a Masters and SJD from Harvard Law School. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and a founding member of the Australian Academy of Law. She has published numerous textbooks on Indigenous legal issues.

Lunchtime Conversation Series 2021: First Nations innovators and visionaries. Six illuminating talks exploring the stories and ground-breaking work of First Nations leaders across political, environmental and cultural fields.