A rich exploration of how law and lore can co-exist, from the author of After Story.

A revelatory exploration of how law and lore can co-exist, from the bestselling author of After Story. Larissa Behrendt has lived an extraordinary career - as a legal academic, author and filmmaker - that has allowed her to move between courtrooms and Country to explore what real justice means, and what it might yet become. In this ground-breaking work that is part philosophical meditation and part historical reckoning, Behrendt weaves together personal reflection, Indigenous knowledge and decades of legal experience to illuminate a deeper truth about Australia: that more than one way of understanding law, justice and responsibility has always existed. With quiet authority, Behrendt considers how First Nations' Practices of Sovereignty - grounded in self-determination, reciprocity and collective care - have succeeded within communities. Clear‚Äëeyed, thoughtful and ultimately hopeful, Finding Justice is a profound invitation: to rethink power and policy, expand our understanding of justice and achieve genuine transformation.

Details

ISBN13: 9780702268328
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of Pages: 272
Edition:
Publication Date: 03 Nov 2026
Publisher: University of Queensland Press
Publication City, Country: St Lucia, Australia
Dimensions (cm): 22.6(H)x15.2(L)x2(W)300
Weight (gm): 300

Author Biography

Larissa Behrendt is the author of three novels: Home, which won the David Unaipon Award and the regional Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book; Legacy, which won the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Indigenous Writing; and After Story, shortlisted for the Indigenous Writers' Prize at the NSW Premier's Literary Award, General Fiction Book of the Year at the ABIAs and Nielsen Adult Fiction Book of the Year at the ABA Booksellers' Choice Awards, and longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award. She has published numerous books on Indigenous legal issues; her most recent non-fiction book is Finding Eliza: Power and Colonial Storytelling. She was awarded the 2009 NAIDOC Person of the Year award and 2011 NSW Australian of the Year. Larissa wrote and directed the feature films After the Apology and Innocence Betrayed and has written and produced several short films. In 2018 she won the Australian Directors' Guild Award for Best Direction in a Documentary Feature and in 2020 the AACTA for Best Direction in Nonfiction Television. She is the host of Speaking Out on ABC Radio and is Distinguished Professor at the Jumbunna Institute at the University of Technology Sydney.

Reviews

'Larissa Behrendt shows us justice does not come from the law, it comes from the heart.' - Stan Grant

'A terrific book, wise and passionate, offering a roadmap towards a larger justice.' - Kate Grenville