In 2011, after a close friend committed suicide, Tutt became a travelling alpacashearer throughout Australia and New Zealand, before eventually rediscovering his love for science.[5]
Career
Tutt at the 2023 NSW Premier's Literary Awards
Tutt began his career as a zookeeper on the NSW South Coast,[6] then spent time as an alpaca shearer travelling throughout Australia and New Zealand.[5]
In 2018, Tutt founded DeadlyScience to "provide science books and early reading material to remote schools in Australia".[7]
In 2022, Tutt authored the award-winning best seller, The First Scientists: Deadly Inventions and Innovations from Australia's First Peoples,[10][11] illustrated by Archibald Prize-winning artist Blak Douglas.[12]
In June 2023, Tutt released This Book Thinks Ya Deadly, featuring the profiles of 80 Blakfellas who are doing deadly things across sport, art, activism and science, through to politics, education and literature. The book is illustrated by Molly Hunt.[13]
DeadlyScience
Tutt founded DeadlyScience while working at Sydney University. Originally working two jobs to fund DeadlyScience, he set up a gofundme page that attracted over A$240,000 in donations,[14] after realising that there was a school in remote Australia who had only fifteen books in their library.[15] Starting off by sending his own books and other resources, including telescopes to remote schools, Tutt started coordinating donated resources, including books from high-profile scientists such as Brian Cox and Karl Kruszelnicki. By 2020 he had delivered 7,000 books and 200 telescopes to over 100 schools and foundations. He wants to encourage Indigenous students in remote communities to pursue a career in STEM.[16]
He particularly wants to ensure that every remote Australian school has resources that tell the true history of Australia's first scientists, such as Bruce Pascoe's book, Dark Emu.[17]
From 2019, Tutt founded a series of Deadly Junior Scientist Awards, aimed at inspiring Indigenous students to engage with STEM and to examine local wildlife and land in a scientific way.[18][17]
In 2020, DeadlyScience began assisting with rebuilding schools affected by devastating bush fires which ravaged most of the South Coast of New South Wales. They did this by providing books and resources to schools that have been destroyed by fire. DeadlyScience also successfully raised A$7,000 for Broome Primary School in Western Australia that was burnt down by an arson attack. Tutt said on the ABC Nightlife program "Schools are the heartbeat of our community and for our community in Broome we stand with you during this dark time".[citation needed]
In 2020 he was awarded NSW Young Australian of the Year.[17][19][8]
In 2021 Tutt led a project to provide food and educational supplies to Aboriginal families in NSW struggling with COVID-19.[citation needed] During the floods on the Mid-north coast of NSW in 2021, when Telegraph Point Public School was destroyed by flooding, Tutt donated books to replace the books lost by the school.[20]
In 2022 DeadlyScience donated Lego to over 200 schools across Australia.[citation needed]
In November 2022 Tutt organised a bus for Cabbage Tree Island School after the devastating floods that destroyed their school. Tutt also gave every child, from three schools devastated by the floods, a brand new book so they would not lose their passions for STEM.[citation needed]
2022: The First Scientists: Deadly Inventions and Innovations from Australia's First Peoples, winner, Book of the Year for Younger Children at the Australian Book Industry Awards[33][34][35]
2023: The First Scientists: Deadly Inventions and Innovations from Australia's First Peoples, winner, Children's Book of the Year[10] and shortlisted for the Indigenous writers' prize, both at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards[11]
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