‘Inflammatory, divisive, disrespectful’: Bendigo Writers Festival founder speaks out

The founder and former head of the Bendigo Writers Festival has slammed attempts by organisers to stifle discussion and debate at this year’s event as an “authoritarian abuse of power”.

Rosemary Sorensen, who founded the festival in 2012 a few years after making a tree change to the regional goldfields city and ran it until 2023, has spoken out about the controversy that has torn apart this year’s festival, which ran from Friday to Sunday.

She has added her voice to the condemnation of the decision by organisers to send participants a “code of conduct” that urged them to “avoid language or topics that could be considered inflammatory, divisive, or disrespectful”. The move sparked a backlash from writers who had been slated to appear at the festival, with more than 50 withdrawing.

It also resulted in Friday’s opening night event being cancelled, and the withdrawal of independent retailer Bookish from the role of book-selling partner.

Sorensen, who writes about the arts for Independent Australia, said her first response to news of the directive was one of shock.

“How could such a letter – which is so inflammatory, divisive and disrespectful – be sent out to writers?” Sorensen said.

“As the news sank in, I was in a state of shock – despairing, angry shock.”

Like many others, she took the directive as a deliberate attempt to stifle discussion of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, in response to Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attacks. However, if followed, the directive would also potentially have had the impact of stifling discussion of a vast range of topics, including sexual abuse and violence against women and children.

As such, it had given author Randa Abdel-Fattah, an Australian woman of Palestinian and Egyptian heritage, little choice, said Sorensen.

“She could do nothing other than withdraw,” she said. “She has been subject to relentless, ruthless, unscrupulous attacks for years … other writers withdrawing in protest was absolutely the right thing to do.”

Sorensen left the festival – which was always a council-funded event under her direction – in 2023, having intended to bow out earlier before the COVID-19 pandemic intervened. She was instrumental in seeking the involvement of La Trobe University academic Clare Wright as co-curator of the La Trobe Presents stream of the program, a move, she says, “of which I’m proud”.

Wright also withdrew from this year’s event over the code of conduct issued to participants the day before the event began.

The wording of the directive is taken from the Universities Australia statement on racism, to which La Trobe is a signatory. That definition has come in for criticism over its close alignment with the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s “working definition of antisemitism”, which some critics allege conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism.

The Universities Australia statement says: “Criticism of the policies and practices of the Israeli government or state is not in and of itself antisemitic. However, criticism of Israel can be antisemitic … when it calls for the elimination of the State of Israel or all Jews or when it holds Jewish individuals or communities responsible for Israel’s actions.”

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s position is that “manifestations [of antisemitism] might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. However, criticism of Israel similar to that levelled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.”

“Of course, it was about Gaza,” Sorensen said of the code of conduct. “And I’d have thought such a directive is antithetical not just to a writers festival or a university but to a government and the society it is there to protect.”

Though this year’s event had turned into a disaster, it need not be the end for the Bendigo Writers Festival, its founder insisted.

“If there’s an honest appraisal, an owning of this calamity, then I think writers will support it, too,” she said.

Moves in Bendigo and elsewhere to curtail speech in the name of “respectful debate”, as festival organisers put it, were unnecessary and counter-productive, Sorensen said.

“We have guard rails already,” she said. “Governments at all levels, and cultural organisations at all levels, responding before the fact is not a guard rail. It’s an authoritarian abuse of power and very dangerous for a healthy functioning democracy.”

La Trobe University has defended its stance, saying that it was committed to fostering a culture that valued all forms of diversity.

“La Trobe University does not tolerate racism of any kind, including antisemitism and Islamophobia. La Trobe’s commitment to academic freedom and freedom of speech is consistent with our approach to creating safe environments for the free exchange of ideas,” a spokesperson said.

“Our Anti-Racism Action Plan, which includes a working definition of Islamophobia, was developed through extensive staff, student and community consultation.”

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