Other voices
(speeches at PEN events)
 November 2007
Adelaide PEN International Day of the imprisoned writer
JM Coetzee
PEN - Poets, Essayists and Novelists - was founded in the 1920's, in the aftermath of World War One. The charter of the organisation, penned by the (mainly British) poets, essayists and novelists who came together to found it, expresses aims that can still resonate with us, even if to our ears their words carry overtones of a genteel and perhaps even quaint, other-wordly idealism: In times of war, works of art and libraries should be left untouched by national or political passions; In order that the world progress toward a higher political and economic order, writers should be free to criticise government; Members of PEN will pledge themselves to refrain from distorting the facts for political ends (what we could call spinning the facts).
Read on…(PDF, 30K)
Talk for Adelaide PEN
Mark Parnell MLC
Australian Greens
I would like to begin by acknowledging and paying my respects to the Kaurna people, the traditional owners of the land on which we stand today. I would also like to thank Adelaide PEN for inviting me to speak on this very important occasion.
It was with some trepidation that I suggested to Lindy Warrell that I speak about the state of free speech in South Australia, rather than talking about the situation in other countries. I was nervous because we can be in no doubt that the situation in relation to free speech is far far worse in many parts of the World than it is in South Australia. You have all heard and read stories of terrible suffering and atrocities committed against people who speak out or write in ways that offend powerful forces in government, in the military, in business or in religious institutions.
Read on…(PDF, 60K)
"The Invisible Dead"
Sean Williams
This week Australia observed Remembrance Day, the occasion we set aside to acknowledge the sacrifice made by veterans and civilians during wartime in the last one hundred years. The Australian Government web site lists around thirty commemorative services, luncheons, parades, and wreath-layings all across the country, plus another fifty or so around the world, in or near war memorials, stones of remembrance, tombs to unknown soldiers, and halls of memory. One minute's silence is observed, thanks to King George V, who decreed: "all locomotion should cease, so that, in perfect stillness, the thoughts of everyone may be concentrated on reverent remembrance of the glorious dead".
Wars are the most visible form of conflict between and within countries. If the resulting deaths can be regarded as glorious then it's perhaps in part because they are so visible. In this televised age, the human face of war is a very familiar and controversial one, backlit by a Hollywood-esque special effects industry devoted to violence and destruction.
Read on…(PDF, 50K)
November 2006
‘Freedom of Expression, Censorship and Race Relations’ An important balance between Rights for writers
Tom Calma, National Race Discrimination Commissioner and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner
I would like to begin by acknowledging and paying my respects to the Kauna people, the traditional owners of the land on which we stand today.
I would also like to acknowledge Lindy Warrell and Tony Brooks, the Hon John Hill, the Hon John von Dousa QC, President of HREOC, and all the writers who are sharing with us their readings, and to thank Adelaide PEN for inviting me to speak on this very important occasion.
As the national Race Discrimination Commissioner my role is to promote and monitor compliance with the federal Racial Discrimination Act. This includes monitoring racism, conducting research and developing education programs to combat racism in all its forms. The recognition and protection of diversity, and cultural and religious rights is an important part of what we do.
Balancing the right to freedom of speech against the right to be free from racial abuse and hatred is a difficult and complex task. Likewise, finding a legal balance between censorship and the right to freedom of expression and human rights is equally complex, and we often find ourselves walking the thin wire dividing both.
Read on…(PDF, 70K)
International day of the imprisoned writer commemorative event
John Hill
In 1995, 11 years ago, a gentle frail white haired old man came to Adelaide to tell his story. He was the poet Nguyen Chi Thien and he had just been released from 27 years imprisonment in Vietnam. His crime was to write poems about what he saw and what he knew of life in his native country.
In a quiet shaking voice he read of his ordeal where even in prison he continued to write:
“If Heaven does exist, if tomorrow is still to come
I’ll tell the story of my own night, dark and long,
So that my contemporaries and future generations
May wake up and realise my dreadful tribulations.”
Read on…(PDF, 70K)
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