A note from ArtsHub: In response to a number of writers, including Dr Randa Abdel-Fatteh, Dr Evelyn Araluen and Claire G Coleman, withdrawing from Bendigo Writer Festival yesterday (14 August) because they had been asked to sign a Code of Conduct adhering to Festival sponsor Latrobe University’s Anti-Racism Plan – which contentiously conflates anti-Zionism with antisemitism – a further tranche of writers have followed suit in solidarity.
Bendigo Writers Festival – quick links:
The protesting Bendigo Writers Festival participants
Kate Larsen, the co-author of this article with fellow panellists Madison Griffiths with Cher Tan, are among the writers to have withdrawn in protest to date. Other writers to have withdrawn from Bendigo Writers Festival at the time of writing, in solidarity and in protest are:
- Amanda Collins
- Bernard Caleo
- Clare Wright
- Daniel James
- David Munro
- Fiona Hardy
- Fiona Stanley
- Grace Yee
- Ita Mehrotra
- Jacinta Le Plastrier
- Jaclyn Crupi
- Jeanine Leane
- Jess Hill
- Jock Serong
- Jonathan Butler
- Kate Mildenhall
- Kelly Gardiner
- Kirstin Ferguson
- Kylie Mirmohamadi
- Melanie Cheng
- Michelle Scott Tucker
- Paul Daley
- Rachel Ang
- Sarah Firth
- Sonia Orchard
- Tara Calaby
- Thomas Mayo
Such writers were asked to adhere to Bendigo Writers Festival’s own Code of Conduct (which according to the Festival is a summary of City of Bendigo’s Code of Conduct that all employees, including volunteers, students on placement, councillors, contractors, subcontractors and consultants must adhere to, according to the Festival’s own correspondence. Bendigo Writers Festival is owned and operated by the City of Greater Bendigo).
Like the Latrobe University document, the Festival’s Code of Conduct was only sent to participants at short notice – in the case of the Festival’s email alerting participants to the Code of Conduct, on Thursday 14 August, the day before the Festival opened.
The Code asks Festival participants to: ‘Avoid language or topics that could be considered inflammatory, divisive, or disrespectful,’ and adds, in regard to ‘Controversial Commentary: If discussing sensitive topics, do so with care, balance, and respect.’
Read: Pro-Palestinian protests censored: how theatres and literary communities respond
Given the Festival’s ‘broad and diverse audience’, participants were also asked to ensure their ‘content is appropriate for a general audience and sensitive to cultural, social, and personal differences’ in the Code of Conduct, some participants to have withdrawn from the Festival note that adhering to the Code of Conduct may require self-censorship on a range of potentially ‘sensitive’ subjects.
Such subjects might include trans rights and representation (to avoid upsetting audience members who believe trans women are actually just ‘cross-dressing’ and potentially ‘predatory’ men), and Aboriginal rights and a proposed Treaty with Australia’s First Peoples (to avoid upsetting supporters of the successful ‘No’ vote in the failed Voice to Parliament Referendum).
Bendigo Writers Festival’s official bookseller cancels partnership
According to Bendigo Writers Festival’s message to its Festival partners on Thursday, ‘Canberra Writers Festival, Margaret River Readers & Writers Festival, Australian Short Story Festival, and National Young Writers Festival all have Codes of Conduct’.
ArtsHub learned today that one such partner, local bookshop Bookish – the Festival’s official bookseller – had cancelled its partnership with Bendigo Writers Festival despite the financial impact the decision would have on their sales.
The owner of Bookish, Wendy (who declined to give her surname for personal reasons) confirmed the news with ArtsHub this afternoon, saying ‘It’s absolutely true’.
Bendigo Writers Festival’s message to writers
Bendigo Writers Festival’s email to participants on Thursday, which included the requested Code of Conduct for signing, also noted:
‘We are experiencing a small number of authors withdrawing due to illness and separately due to expectations outlined in a Code of Conduct introduced for this year’s Festival …
‘There is no requirement for participants to sign the Festival Code of Conduct as you have already signed your Festival Agreement.
‘We respect all decisions for participants to withdraw and thank them for their initial willingness to be part of the Festival. Co-curator Prof. Clare Wright has also confirmed she is withdrawing due to personal and professional reasons.
‘Although this does mean some changes to the Festival program we remain committed to delivering the Festival in partnership with you,’ the email to participants read.
The following article by Kate Larsen, Madison Griffiths and Cher Tan was originally published on Substack and is republished here with permission.
An update from Bendigo Writers Festival
Bendigo Writers Festival provided ArtsHub with the following statement shortly after publication and the article has been updated accordingly: ‘Bendigo Writers Festival is committed to holding an event that engages in respectful debate, open minded discussion, and explores topical and complex issues.
‘The Festival and Presenting Partner, La Trobe University, felt it was necessary to emphasise the importance of safety and wellbeing for all participants by introducing a Code of Conduct.
‘Codes of Conduct are part of similar festivals and are a useful reference point to guide expectations for respectful discussion, particularly when exploring past and current challenging, distressing and traumatic world events.
‘For those participants making the choice to withdraw due to introducing a Code of Conduct, we respect their decision and thank them for their initial willingness to be part of the Festival.
‘Although this does mean some changes to the Festival program, we remain committed to delivering the Festival in partnership with stakeholders and participants as best we can,’ the statement concluded.
In response to ArtsHub‘s question, the Festival spokesperson confirmed the withdrawal of numerous writers and cancellation of multiple sessions: ‘We currently have 24 impacted sessions, 17 cancelled sessions and 48 participants have withdrawn (with a few cancelled due to all other participants in their session withdrawing). Refunds are being automatically provided to ticketholders of cancelled events,’ they said.
The Festival is on now, and runs until Sunday 17 August.
Panel withdrawn from Bendigo Writers Fest
I was so looking forward to this weekend’s Bendigo Writers Festival, where I was meant to join Madison Griffiths and Cher Tan as part of the Cities of Literature Book Club to discuss Looking at Women Looking at War by the late Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina.
However, following the decisions and actions of Festival and Presenting Partner La Trobe University this week, and in solidarity with fellow participating writers, we no longer feel able to take part.
In a group statement withdrawing our participation, our panel wrote:
We were dismayed to learn that our colleagues in the Festival’s La Trobe Presents sessions were told they would be required to abide by La Trobe’s Anti-Racism Plan, including definitions of antisemitism and Islamophobia that would inhibit criticism of Israel’s genocide in Palestine.
While we were not included in this cohort, we feel unable to participate in a framework that restricts authors’ freedom of expression – particularly given the subject of our panel was to be about writing and war crimes, rights and resistance, through the lens of Ukrainian author Victoria Amelina’s war and justice diary (published posthumously after she herself became a victim of Russia’s war crimes).
As mentioned in our previous emails, we planned to have a conversation about the role of writers in documenting and being on the receiving end of war crimes. While Amelina’s book would have grounded that conversation in Ukraine, we agreed to take part in the panel on the understanding that the discussion would inevitably extend to Israel’s war crimes in Palestine, and to the censorship and complicity of Australia’s own arts organisations, mainstream media, and war stenographers in enabling the genocide of Palestinians to continue.
In line with the Code of Conduct for Bendigo Writers Festival Speakers received from you this afternoon, we planned to approach these topics with care, balance and respect, and in no way consider them to be inflammatory or divisive – particularly at a time when being a writer has never been more dangerous.
In the 10 years of its war against Ukraine, Russia has killed more than 220 members of Ukraine’s literary community (up to January 2025). In the last two years alone, Israel has killed nearly 270 journalists and media workers in Gaza (more than were killed in World Wars 1 and 2, and the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Ukraine combined). This made 2024 the deadliest year for writers since the Committee to Protect Journalists began collecting data over 30 years ago. 70% of those killed were killed by Israel. Which is important because, as Amelina reminds us, the second rule of war reportage is to explicitly name who is responsible: ‘The perpetrators must be identified along with the degree of their involvement.’
We are appalled that another writers festival has made the choice to censor the very writers it relies upon, and in such a rushed and clumsy manner that will cause harm to its authors, audiences and the Festival’s own credibility and viability.
Choosing to notify writers the day before the Festival will have a negative impact on speakers’ already-limited incomes, as well as the Festival’s own income through loss of ticket sales. Choosing to do so in a way that endorsed the controversial Universities Australia definition of antisemitism (a month after the Australian Federal Court ruling that anti-Zionism and criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitic) risks the Festival’s reputation, governance and duty of care. And following those decisions with a disingenuous email that downplayed speakers’ concerns and implied that their inability to accept La Trobe’s definition of wellbeing or safety meant the speakers themselves were unsafe was unfair, harmful, and risks damaging the Festival’s ability to program in the future.
Although we are extremely disappointed to lose the opportunity to speak on these issues, we cannot in good conscience appear at the Festival while Palestinian and First Nations colleagues have been particularly targeted to toe a pro-Israel (or at best, Israel-neutral) line. Further, due to how this has played out, we no longer feel confident that we would be able to discuss these issues in a safe and supported manner that underpins our responsibilities as writers during this critical period in time.
After our close reading of Looking at Women, Looking at War, we feel Amelina would have made a similarly principled stand. As she writes early in her book, ‘history does not leave me [or us] with much choice’.
Always was, always will be. Slava Ukraini. And Free Palestine.
My heart goes out to all of the programmed authors, ticket-holders, BWF team and collaborators, Lviv and Melbourne Cities of Literature, and everyone who wanted to hear these important conversations. But we can – and we must – do better.
Throwback: the statements we make
Unfortunately, the Bendigo Writers Fest mess is just another reminder that failure continues to be the status quo when it comes to Australian arts, cultural and non-profit organisations’ response (or lack of response) to Palestine and similar polycrisis issues as matters of governance, risk and crisis management, financial sustainability and duty of care.
It’s nearly a year since Overland published my piece on the statements we make (which went on to become my most-read article of 2024).
Since then, in spite all the bad-practice examples they’ve had to learn from, we’ve only seen more organisations failing to live up to their purpose or values (including at the highest levels), with very little systemic change (which I’ll talk more about in my return conversation with the Take on Board podcast, due out later this month).
‘In navigating crises and everyday-business alike, everything we do tells the world who we are. There is no neutral, no position that doesn’t come with risk. Pro-actively managing that risk is necessary business, and more effective than leaving it up to others to infer what systems or oppressions our silence accepts or upholds.’
Read more on the Overland website.
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This article was updated after publication, at 3:13pm AEST, to include Bendigo Writers Festival’s statement and the details provided about the number of Festival events impacted by writers withdrawing from the program.
