A Certain Maritime Incident wins the 2005 Community Relations Commission Award, in the 2005 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, part of Sydney Writers’ Festival

and Two upcoming SIEV X events at Sydney Writers Festival on 26 and 29 May 2005

 

The announcement on 23 May 2005 of the Community Relations Commission Award to my book A Certain Maritime Incident: the Sinking of SIEV X (Scribe Publishing, Melbourne 2004) was warmly received by the 400-strong invited audience of literary folk at a presentation dinner at Parliament House, Sydney.

See below for my unofficial transcript of what Premier Carr and I each said about the book during the ceremony. (I include this for archival record purposes).

Also below are the previously published comments on the book by the judging panel.

TK Comment: I think this welcome award is, frankly, amazing, given the politically confronting subject matter of the book. (I think Bob Carr was fairly amazed by it too.)

I am publicizing this award as best I can, but this is not about my self-promotion as a writer. It is about keeping the issue of SIEV X alive, which some powerful forces in Australian government would dearly love to see buried and forgotten. I don't wish to let that happen, to the extent I can do anything more about it.

We are now waiting for whistleblowers of conscience from within, or formerly within, the Australian Government’s border protection system.

If any should come to me, I would simply advise them to approach any of the below-mentioned Opposition senators, excepting Senator Jacinta Collins whose term of office in the Senate is, sadly, drawing to a close. We will miss her very much.

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The SIEV X –related events in the Sydney Writers’ Festival - do try to come - are:

1. Readings from Premier’s Literary Awards, 1000-1100, Thursday 26 May, at Sydney Dance Company Studio 2/3, Pier 4/5 Hickson Road, Walsh Bay . Admission free. Chaired by Elaine Lindsay, Program Manager for Literature and History within the NSW Ministry for the Arts. ( Four or five prizewinners will read, for about 10 minutes each)

2. A Certain Maritime Incident, speaker Tony Kevin, 1300-1400, Sunday 29 May 29, Sydney Dance Company Studio 1, Pier 4/5 Hickson Road, Walsh Bay. Admission free. Chaired by Henry Rosenbloom, publisher, Scribe Books. (This will be a discussion on the theme: "SIEV X - the Cone of Silence").

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Unofficial transcript by Tony Kevin of remarks at Premier's Literary Dinner, Strangers' Dining Room, NSW Parliament House, 23 May 2005:

Premier Carr: The next award celebrates a work that has made a significant contribution to Australian literature, through its portrayal of our diverse cultures, Australian immigration, and migrant settlement. Four titles were selected from 25 entries. The judges awarded the prize to a powerful, startling and nationally significant work of non-fiction about the migration experience. The author, the judges say, is a courageous writer, and his tenacity and passion shed light on an incident which could change the way we think about our international refugee responsibilities and our morality as Australians. The winner of the Community Relations Award is Tony Kevin, for A Certain Maritime Incident: the Sinking of SIEV X, Scribe Publishing.

Tony Kevin:

Thank you, Premier and thank you all.

For those of you who might need your memories refreshed - SIEV X was the name I coined, "suspected illegal entry vessel, unknown", for the boat that sank on October 19th 2001, at the hëight of John Howard's election campaign, drowning 353 people mostly women and children.

Most of all, this award is an honour to the dignity and courage of the people who died and of the people who mourn them. It is also a recognition of the investigative work that I and others have done, to try to bring what I believe was a great crime against humanity to justice. That crusade is not over yet, it is in process, but this award is a very important stepping stone on the road.

I'd like to thank a few people in particular. First of all my wife Sina, without whose support this book could not have been written.

David Marr and Marian Wilkinson, whose well-esteeemed book Dark Victory laid the essential foundation for my work

Marg Hutton, whose website www.sievx.com - her scrupulous archival website, archived in the National Library's Pandora Archive I am glad to say - gave me so much of the evidence which I built my book around.

Some very brave senators - Opposition senators John Faulkner, Peter Cook, Jacinta Collins, Andrew Bartlett and Bob Brown - who tried within the limitations of the Senate investigative system to get to the bottom of this. They failed, because of the seamless cover-up by Commonwealth national security agencies, but they took it a long part of the way.

And some very brave journalists:

Geoff Parish of SBS Dateline, who uncovered the crucial evidence of where the boat sank.

Ross Coulthart of Channel Nine Sunday, who discovered the extent of the covert cooperation between the Australian Federal Police in Indonesia and a disreputable Australian people smuggler, Kevin Enniss.

Debbie Whitmont whose brilliant ABC Four Corners program To Deter and Deny
exposed the cruelties and duplicity of the routine operations of the Australian border protection operation, Operation Relex.

Margo Kingston who had the courage to challenge the Prime Minister's audacious
lies about SIEV X, publicly and repeatedly.

And an Australian Arabic language journalist, Ghassan Nakhoul, who went all over the world to try and talk to survivors and discover what really happened.

It's going to be a long hard road to get to the bottom of this, because there is a concerted and determined cover-up. But we will get there. One day a whistleblower will come forward from within the national security system, and we will then know how much of my book is true and how much of it is false. Until then, thank you for this award.

UNOFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT ENDS

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Published comments on the book by judges’ panel: (in full):

"This is a powerful, startling and nationally important work of non-fiction about the migration experience. Tony Kevin's journalistic integrity and exhaustive research are impeccable in his account of the sinking of the SIEV X in the seas between Australian and Indonesia in 2001. The vessel sank south of the Sunda Strait en route to Christmas Island, drowning 353 asylum seekers, the majority of whom were women and children. This book exposes the lack of humanitarian decency from the Australian and Indonesian authorities towards these victims. It contains first-hand survivor reports: "Thirst, hunger and salt water … I clung onto a plank with another lady. All the water around us was contaminated with fuel. The little girl died from exhaustion and the cold, she did not have a lifejacket." This is heart-wrenching material.

"Tony Kevin asks what kind of country do we want to be? He argues that the truth will steadily be revealed and that this truth will set us free. The accounts of the few who survived "sing of the strength of the human spirit. The language is religious and poetic". This is a book of national significance, and goes to the heart of our country's ability to show compassion and to be truthful; it is also breathtaking to read."

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Background:

The New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards were established by Premier Neville Wran in 1979 to honour distinguished achievement by Australian writers. The Awards were announced, during the Sydney Writers' Festival, by the NSW Premier, Bob Carr, at a presentation dinner at Parliament House on 23 May 2005, as follows:

Christina Stead Prize for fiction ($20,000)

Tim Winton - The Turning - Pan Macmillan Australia

Douglas Stewart Prize for non-fiction ($20,000)

John Hughes - The Idea of Home: Autobiographical Essays - Giramondo Publishing

Kenneth Slessor Prize for poetry ($15,000)

Samuel Wagan Watson - Smoke Encrypted Whispers - University of Queensland Press

Ethel Turner Prize for young people's literature ($15,000)

Steven Herrick - By the River - Allen & Unwin

Patricia Wrightson Prize ($15,000)

Sherryl Clark - Farm Kid - Penguin Group Australia

Community Relations Commission Award ($15,000)

Tony Kevin - A Certain Maritime Incident: The Sinking of SIEV X - Scribe Publications

Gleebooks Prize for Literary and Cultural Criticism ($10,000)

Gillian Cowlishaw - Blackfellas White Fellas and the Hidden Injuries of Race - Blackwell

Play Award ($15,000)

Katherine Thomson - Harbour - Sydney Theatre Company

Script Writing Award ($15,000)

Betty Churcher - The Art of War - Film Australia

The NSW Premier's Translation Prize ($15,000)

Christopher Andrews

Book of the Year

Samuel Wagan Watson - Smoke Encrypted Whispers - University of Queensland Press