The State Library of Queensland has come under fire after abruptly cancelling a $15,000 Indigenous Writing Fellowship, just hours before it was due to be awarded to writer Karen Wyld on Tuesday 20 May. The decision, prompted by a tweet Wyld (whose pronouns are they/their/she) made in October 2023 regarding the conflict in Gaza, has sparked widespread criticism and raised questions about the limits of artistic expression and the role of governments in arts funding.
The award, part of the black&write! program funded by Creative Australia, was intended to support Wyld’s manuscript exploring seven generations of stolen Indigenous children. The tweet in question, which referred to the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as a ‘martyr’, was deleted soon after being posted. Wyld told Guardian Australia the post was an emotional reaction to Australia’s foreign policy response, not a political statement connected to her manuscript.
