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In 2007 the Kit Denton Fellowship was launched.
Kit Denton, a lifetime member of the Australian Writers Guild, died in 1997, having written novels, short stories, radio and television documentaries, verse and lyrics, and feature films scripts. He was also a script-assessor for the Australian Film Development Corporation and script-consultant for Film Australia.
Kit was a writer’s writer. Always drinking in the work of others. Constantly making himself available to those who sought guidance. Unfailingly professional.
He was also a man of commitment and integrity, never afraid to speak the truth as he saw it. Perhaps this is best illustrated by the sequel to his most famous work, The Breaker, a novel about the trial and execution of Breaker Morant and Peter Handcock at the hands of a British military tribunal during the Boer War.
The Breaker was an international best-seller and most authors would have been happy to leave it there. Not Kit. A decade after its publication, he published a sequel, Closed File, not a work of fiction this time, but an attempt to tell the truth of the story based on information he had received in the intervening years.
The fact that Closed File was, in some ways, an admission by Kit that his original work was “top-dressed with dramatic license” (his words), did not bother him. Kit was interested in the truth – always – even if it was at his own expense.
That takes courage.
When Geoffrey Atherden, President of the Guild's Foundation approached me recently with the idea of setting up a scholarship in Kit’s name, I suggested that the criteria be simply that: courage.
With an increasing concentration of media ownership coinciding with a rise in fundamentalist thinking, the need for genuine free-thinkers – those unafraid to question and challenge the status quo – is greater than ever.
A writer can display courage in many ways: By swimming against the tide of popular opinion in search of an often unpalatable truth. By persevering in the face of limited resources. Or by a refusal to baulk at seemingly insurmountable obstacles.
The aim of the Kit Denton Scholarship is to support writers of courage in a practical way so that they may be heard in full voice.
For making the Kit Denton Fellowship possible, I would like to acknowledge the material support of Kennedy Miller Mitchell Productions, Crikey, Freemantle Media, GNW Productions & Tresscox in 2007 and Animal Logic, Fremantle Media, GNW Productions, Kennedy Miller Mitchell Productions and TressCox in 2008. Their unhesitating support of the concept was incredibly important. Hopefully, it will bear all sorts of unlooked-for fruit.
My favourite quote about the role of art in society comes from film-maker Luis Bunuel:
“In any society the artist has a responsibility. His effectiveness is certainly limited and a painter or writer cannot change the world. Thanks to them, the powerful can never affirm that everyone agrees with their acts. That small difference is very important”
It is my hope that this scholarship will help make that small difference possible.
In 2007 the recipient of the fellowship was Ian David, of Blue Murder fame and last years winner was Suzie Miller, who wrote about the most misunderstood criminal of all – the child killer.
For more details go to The Australian Writers Guild website www.awg.com.au
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