At 32, he’s also an author, founder of the not-for-profit Deadly Science and was the 2020 NSW Young Australian of the Year.
Growing up in regional Australia, and attending Dapto High School, Tutt always had a love of science but found little encouragement to pursue his dream.
“No one really thought the kids there could become scientists, especially Aboriginal kids,” he said.
In 2011, following the death of a close friend to suicide, Tutt left his home to travel Australia and New Zealand as an alpaca shearer, before eventually deciding on a return to science.
He resettled in NSW to work as a research assistant at the University of Sydney’s Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use and it was round that time that he’d discovered the extent of just how poorly remote schools were resourced. So, in response, launched Deadly Science.
Working two jobs to manage the costs, he began purchasing and mailing books and other reading material box-by-box, school-by-school to communities in need.
“It just broke my heart because I saw myself in these kids,” he said.
“I didn’t have a lot of resources when I was young, in terms of books and things.”
Deadly Science has since grown exponentially, with the charity now working with more than 800 schools and community organisations across the country.
Even so, some things will never alter for Tutt as founder, chief executive and budding social entrepreneur.
“I still get so much joy seeing kids just find love in science,” he said.
“They get a box of resources, they open it up, they get that smile and that never changes for me.”
Tutt has also penned three of his own books.
In 2022, he released The First Scientists: Deadly Inventions and Innovations from Australia's First Peoples, illustrated by Archibald Prize-winning artist Blak Douglas, which has proved an award-winning best seller.
The following year Tutt released This Book Thinks Ya Deadly. Illustrated by Molly Hunt, it features the profiles of 80 highly successful Indigenous Australians across sport, art, activism and science, through to politics, education and literature.
His third title, Caution! This Book Contains Deadly Reptiles, was launched at Sydney’s Taronga Zoo on Friday.
Tutt says creating the text fulfilled a childhood dream inspired by Harold Cogger’s Reptiles In Colour.
“When I first started reading it, I got lost in it,” he said.
“It really captured my imagination of what was possible.”
Tutt mused long and hard about a text like Dr Cogger’s but using the traditional names of the animals.
With illustrations of 68 reptiles, all hand painted by artist Ben Williams, Tutt wanted his creation to take readers on a journey through Country.
“We worked with 21 different language groups to get the names of reptiles and proper permissions to use them,” he said.
“A child can go to Gamilaroi Country, then go to Wiradjuri Country and then to Badu in the Torres Strait and they can learn a bit about that Country and the landscape.”
Now a new dad, Tutt has also revealed a fourth book in the works.
Written for his son as a way to share with him the gift of story, it is due out in August.
(with AAP)
