Storytelling in Colonial Contexts

The Australian legal system is a powerful, ongoing tool of colonisation. The over-representation of First Nations peoples in the criminal justice system and child protection services are evidence of a continuing project of dispossession, alienation, and the eradication of the world’s oldest living culture. However, practices of Indigenous storytelling can challenge and deconstruct these colonial agendas and narratives by putting a human face to the impact of colonisation.

Award-winning author and film-maker, Larissa Behrendt AO outlines how First Nations storytelling is an effective strategy to promote self-determination and the reassertion of sovereignty for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

This event is part of the series Civic Stories in an Age of Polarisation: The New Humanity Makers presented by the Melbourne Public Humanities Initiative.