The festival will not be running again next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The festival’s co-curator and La Trobe University academic, Clare Wright, said the university received concerns from a lobby group about Palestinian-Australian writer Randa Abdel-Fattah and “looked to withdraw its support” from the panel featuring her.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Historian Clare Wright says La Trobe University should have shown more “moral courage”. (ABC News: Patrick Rocca)<\/p>\n
Professor Wright said the university’s actions caused damage to the authors, the staff and its own reputation.<\/p>\n
“I am disappointed [by the lack of transparency from La Trobe University],” she told ABC Central Victoria.<\/p>\n
“They were required to show more moral courage when it came to dealing with what amounted to a very small amount of pushback against the program.”Vice-chancellor intervention<\/p>\n
Professor Wright said the university and City of Greater Bendigo, the festival’s owner, had drafted a response addressing the concerns, but La Trobe University’s vice-chancellor Theo Farell decided against sending it.<\/p>\n
The Bendigo council later sent a code of conduct with a contested definition of antisemitism to all participants, at La Trobe University’s request, just days before the festival.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Bendigo Writers Festival was one of the regional city’s key tourism events. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
The exodus of participants resulted in the cancellation of literary sessions and the opening and closing gala events.<\/p>\n
“There were other ways that it could have been dealt with at the time very swiftly, and that didn’t happen,” Professor Wright said.<\/p>\n
La Trobe University, which has sponsored the Bendigo Writers Festival since 2011, said this year’s festival had not proceeded as intended.<\/p>\n
Professor Farell said they had learnt lessons.<\/p>\n
“We have learned the importance of clarifying partnership terms and responsibilities at an early stage together with robust partnership governance,” he said.<\/p>\n
Council accepts mistakes<\/p>\n
The City of Greater Bendigo has acknowledged its shortcomings and made a decision to pause the festival next year, noting that its processes were “inadequate”.<\/p>\n
After an independent review, the council has adopted a resolution recognising the “unintended consequences” of the code’s content and timing, particularly for Dr Abdel-Fattah and other affected authors, local businesses, participants, and the community, and expresses sincere regret for the impact this had on them”.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Thomas Prince says La Trobe University chose not to contribute to the festival review. (Supplied: Thomas Prince)<\/p>\n
City of Greater Bendigo mayor Thomas Prince said La Trobe University did not contribute to the review.<\/p>\n
Councillor Damien Hurrell, who guided the festival organising committee, said he was comfortable with the processes that were put in place to ensure Dr Abdel-Fattah’s voice could be heard.<\/p>\n
“But I think, as we all now know, there was a pressure applied to try to manage the speakers at the festival in such a way as to avoid what our partner [La Trobe University] was regarding as a potential for antisemitic discussions,” he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Damien Hurrell has apologised to authors who boycotted the festival.\u00a0 (Supplied: Damien Hurrell)<\/p>\n
“To the extent that I did not understand or appreciate what that sort of code of conduct would mean for our authors, I take accountability and responsibility, and I apologise to those authors.”<\/p>\n
The council has also resolved to return to the event in 2027, ensuring “the festival sets the terms, not individual partners”.<\/p>\n
Apology sought<\/p>\n
Dr Abdel-Fattah said she would “absolutely” come back to the festival again if it was a “safe space”.<\/p>\n
However, if La Trobe University were a sponsor, she would have to “think very seriously about the circumstances”.<\/p>\n
“No apology has been made, no accountability, no admission that this was about anti-Palestinian racism, so that’s something I’d have to consider,” she said.<\/p>\n
Randa Abdel-Fattah is a Future Fellow at Macquarie University. Her research covers Islamophobia and race. (Supplied: Bendigo Writers Festival)<\/p>\n
Professor Wright hailed the Bendigo council for deciding to return the festival after a one-year pause.<\/p>\n
“I think the festival is an incredibly important part of not only the local and regional cultural space and economy, but also the literary ecosystem around this country,” she said.<\/p>\n
However, she said La Trobe University should take accountability for its actions.<\/p>\n
“I think that apologies are due,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I think it’s the sign of a mature institution when it can apologise.”<\/p>\n
Sponsorship concerns<\/p>\n
Samuel Cairnduff, from the University of Melbourne’s School of Culture and Communication, said it was a wise move for the council to pause and reconsider the event.<\/p>\n
“They need to make sure sponsors can’t exert that kind of pressure, particularly at the 11th hour, to change the whole scope and engagement nature of the festival.<\/p>\n
He said partnering with sponsors was a two-way exchange of values.<\/p>\n
“When you engage with a sponsor, they don’t get to pull the strings.<\/p>\n
“The worst kind of partnership is one where the partnership is pulling the strings, and dictating what an arts organisation should do. We’ve got to reset that dynamic.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The debate around the failed Bendigo Writers Festival has again embroiled sponsor La Trobe University in controversy amid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9903,55981,9785,193464,193463,43,55985,44,6899,131188,193465,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-352076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-antisemitism","tag-bendigo-writers-festival","tag-censorship","tag-city-of-greater-bendigo","tag-clare-wright","tag-headlines","tag-la-trobe-university","tag-news","tag-palestine","tag-randa-abdel-fattah","tag-samuel-cairnduff","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}