Exclusive : Janet Fife-Yeomans
The Daily Telegraph
September 18, 2015 12:00am
THE arts community has rallied behind a world-renowned indigenous artist who is challenging convictions for repeatedly raping a 12-year-old girl, claiming he was never told sex with a child was wrong.
Dennis Nona has already won one retrial over legal points after claiming the girl had sex with him while he was on a three-day drunken binge — without him knowing it.
Hailed as a “role model” for other Torres Strait artists, 42-year-old Nona has also blamed his abuse of the girl and her sister, 14, on the traditional practice of polygamy he grew up with on Badu Island.
The girl subsequently fell pregnant to him.
“I’m very supportive of him,” art historian and valuer Frances Cummings, who provided written character references to the court for Nona, said yesterday.
“He is a genius of an artist and the things he committed were when he was a very young man.”
Nona’s former arts manager, Michael Kershaw, told the ACT Supreme Court when Nona was sentenced in April that he was a “role model”.
“My role model reference was in the context of his art practice. He has always been very generous in helping other Torres Strait artists,” Mr Kershaw, who runs Australian Art Network, said yesterday.
Nona’s artwork sells for as much as $200,000 and in 2008 he won the $40,000 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award.
He has been refused bail pending his appeal against convictions in the ACT Supreme Court for raping the 12-year-old girl in Canberra in 1996 and sexually assaulting her sister.
He is also appealing his total jail sentence of nine years with a minimum term of four years six months.
Nona was doing a two-year art degree in Canberra when he assaulted the girls. Jailing him in April, ACT Chief Justice Helen Murrell said the 12-year-old had a late termination after discovering at 20 weeks
that she was pregnant. A DNA analysis revealed Nona was the father, although Nona has since challenged the DNA evidence.
He returned to the Torres Strait and a warrant was taken out for his arrest. He was charged in 2008.
He lost a fight to stop the case on grounds of excessive delay but won a retrial on a number of points including the Appeal Court ruled the trial judge had not properly instructed the jury about his claims the girl had sex with him when he was drunk, which she denied. Support from the arts community has continued, even as the National Gallery of Australia has removed his artworks.
“He invented the visual language of his people,” art gallery owner Andrew Baker said yesterday.
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Australia's "Arts Community" and "Beautiful People" has a proud record of standing by its members accused of Paedophilia /Child Pornography,this story below from 2008 is a good example of their solidarity with each when one of their number is exposed and dragged before the courts.
Cate Blanchett backs photographer Bill Henson
Michelle Cazzulino and Neil Keene
The Daily Telegraph
May 28,2008
OSCAR-winning actress Cate Blanchett yesterday mounted an impassioned defence of Bill Henson, urging Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and NSW Premier Morris Iemma to reconsider their comments on the controversial artist's work.
The mother-of-three was among more than 40 signatories, including writer Peter Goldsworthy and economist Saul Eslake, to an open letter by the Creative Australia 2020 Summit representatives.
The missive was released just hours after a third NSW gallery removed a number of Henson's works from display.
Mr Bill Henson below, I am unable to post the photographs that are the subject of the Cate Blanchett open letter of support for Bill Henson,due to child pornography / Paedophilia laws.
Why I photograph children: Henson on video Police last week raided the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Paddington, closing down an exhibition of the artist's works just before it was due to open.
In depth: The Arts
On Friday, officers seized 20 of Henson's images, some featuring a naked girl, said to be aged just 13.
The artworks were criticised by a number of politicians, with Mr Rudd describing them as "revolting".
But the letter signed by Blanchett said the Prime Minister, along with Mr Iemma, should "rethink their public comments".
It also warned that pursuing criminal charges against Henson could harm the children depicted in the seized images.
"The potential prosecution of one of our most respected artists . . . does untold damage to our culture reputation," the letter said.
"We suggest that the. . . criminalisation of laying charges against Mr Henson, his gallery and the parents of the young people depicted in his work would be far more traumatic for the young people concerned than anything Mr Henson has done."
A spokesman for Mr Rudd last night said the Prime Minister did not resile from his remarks. "He was asked to express a personal opinion and he did that," the spokesman said.
Mr Iemma was also unrepentant: "My opinion is clear - these photographs crossed the line and they were inappropriate. I'm all for free speech but never at the expense of a child's safety and innocence."
NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione yesterday told The Daily Telegraph the force's legal division was still considering whether criminal charges should be laid against Henson or the owners of the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery.
He said he found the images objectionable.
"I've got my own personal view and it's one that's not inconsistent with those police who have been out and taken those pictures into their possession," he said.
" . . . I support the police in what they've done."
In Victoria, Adrian Maiolla, the acting president of the Life Models Society, said he, too, had found Henson's images distasteful. His organisation did not allow models aged under 18 to become members and would not supply them to artists, he added.
At the Newcastle Regional Art Gallery, staff yesterday removed a giant print by Henson, featuring a naked and seemingly unconscious female being carried by two other naked subjects. Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, from Newcastle police, said the images were regarded as suspicious.
TUESDAY, MAY 27, 2008
Open Letter of Support for Bill Henson
http://billhensonletterofsupport.blogspot.com.au/
PRESS RELEASE: MAY 27, 2008
Open Letter in support of Bill Henson
From Creative Australia 2020 Summit representatives
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
As members of the Creative Stream of the Australia 2020 Summit, we wish to express our dismay at the police raid on Bill Henson’s recent Sydney exhibition, the allegations that he is a child pornographer, and the subsequent reports that he and others may be charged with obscenity.
The potential prosecution of one of our most respected artists is no way to build a Creative Australia, and does untold damage to our cultural reputation.
The public debate prompted by the Henson exhibition is welcome and important. We need to discuss the ethics of art and the issues that it raises. That is one of the things art is for: it is valuable because it gives rise to such debate and difference, because it raises difficult, sometimes unanswerable, questions about who we are, as individuals and as members of society. However, this on-going discussion, which is crucial to the healthy functioning of our democracy, cannot take place in a court of law.
We invite the Prime Minister, Mr Rudd, and the NSW Premier, Mr Iemma, to rethink their public comments about Mr Henson’s work. We understand that they were made in the context of deep community concern about the sexual exploitation of children. We understand and respect also that they have every right to their personal opinions. However, as political leaders they are influential in forming public opinion, and we believe their words should be well considered.
We also call on the Minister for Environment Heritage and the Arts, Mr Garrett, to stand up for artists against a trend of encroaching censorship which has recently resulted in the closure of this and other exhibitions.
We wish to make absolutely clear that none of us endorses, in any way, the abuse of children.
Mr Henson’s work has nothing to do with child pornography and, according to the judgment of some of the most respected curators and critics in the world, it is certainly art. We ask for the following points to be fairly considered:
1. Mr Henson is a highly distinguished artist. His work is held in all major Australian collections including the Art Gallery of NSW, Art Gallery of SA, Art Gallery of WA, National Gallery of Victoria and the National Gallery of Australia.
Among international collections, his work is held in the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Denver Art Museum; the Houston Museum of Fine Art; 21C Museum, Louisville; the Montreal Museum of Fine Art; Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris; the DG Bank Collection in Frankfurt and the Sammlung Volpinum and the Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna.
Major retrospectives of Mr Henson’s work at the Art Galleries of NSW and Victoria attracted more than 115,000 people, and produced not one complaint of obscenity. His work has also been studied widely in schools for many years.
2. Mr Henson has been photographing young models for more than 15 years. Until now, there has been no suggestion by any of his subjects or their families of any abusive practices. On the contrary, his models have strongly defended his practice and the feeling of safety generated in his process, and have expressed pride in his work.
We suggest that the media sensationalism and the criminalisation of laying charges against Mr Henson, his gallery and the parents of the young people depicted in his work, would be far more traumatic for the young people concerned than anything Mr Henson has done.
3. The work itself is not pornographic, even though it includes depictions of naked human beings. It is more justly seen in a tradition of the nude in art that stretches back to the ancient Greeks, and which includes painters such as Caravaggio and Michelangelo. Many of Henson’s controversial images are not in fact sexual at all. Others depict the sexuality of young people, but in ways that are fundamentally different from how naked bodies are depicted in pornography. The intention of the art is not to titillate or to gratify perverse sexual desires, but rather to make the viewer consider the fragility, beauty, mystery and inviolabilty of the human body.
In contrast, the defining essence of pornography is that it endorses, condones or encourages abusive sexual practice. We respectfully suggest that Henson’s work, even when it is disturbing, does nothing of the sort. I would personally argue that, in its respect for the autonomy of its subjects, the work is a counter-argument to the exploitation and commodification of young people in both commercial media and in pornographic images.
Many of us have children of our own. The sexual abuse and exploitation of children fills us all with abhorrence. But it is equally damaging to deny the obvious fact that adolescents are sexual beings. This very denial contributes to abusive behaviour, because it is part of the denial of the personhood of the young. In my opinion, Mr Henson’s work shows the delicacy of the transition from childhood to adulthood, its troubledness and its beauty, in ways which do not violate the essential innocence of his subjects. It can be confronting, but that does not mean that it is pornography.
Legal opinion is that if charges were laid against Mr Henson, he would be unlikely to be found guilty. The seizure of the photographs, and the possible prosecution of Mr Henson, the Rosyln Oxley9 Gallery or the parents of Henson’s subjects, takes up valuable police and court time that would be much better spent pursuing those who actually do abuse children.
4. Perhaps the most distressing aspect of the trial-by-media to which Mr Henson and his work has been subject over the past few days, is how his art has been diminished and corrupted. The allegations that he is making child pornography have done more to promote his work to possible paedophiles than any art gallery, where the work is seen in its proper, contemplative context. It is notable that the attacks on Mr Henson’s work have, almost without exception, come from those who are unfamiliar with the photographs, or who have seen them in mutilated or reduced images on the internet.
If an example is made of Bill Henson, one of Australia’s most prominent artists, it is hard to believe that those who have sought to bring these charges will stop with him. Rather, this action will encourage a repressive climate of hysterical condemnation, backed by the threat of prosecution.
We are already seeing troubling signs in the pre-emptive self-censorship of some galleries. This is not the hallmark of an open democracy nor of a decent and civilised society. We should remember that an important index of social freedom, in earlier times or in repressive regimes elsewhere in the world, is how artists and art are treated by the state.
We urge our political leaders to follow the example of Neville Wran, when in 1982 a similar outcry greeted paintings by Juan Davila. At that time, Mr Wran said: “I do not believe that art has anything to do with the vice squad”. With Mr Wran, we believe the proper place for debate is outside the courts of law.
Alison Croggon
Writer
Signatories:
Louise Adler, CEO & Publisher-in-Chief, Melbourne University Publishing
Geoffery Atherden, Writer
Neil Armfield, Artistic director, Belvoir St Theatre
Stephen Armstrong, Executive Producer, Malthouse Theatre
James Baker, Tax advisor and accountant
Geraldine Barlow, Curator
Larissa Behrendt, Professor of Law, University of Technology Sydney
Cate Blanchett, Actor
Daryl Buckley, Musician
Leticia Cacares, Theatre Director
Karen Casey, Visual Artist
Kate Champion, Choreographer, Artistic Director Force Majeure
Rachel Dixon, New media developer
Phoebe Dunn, Chief Executive Officer, Australian Commercial Galleries Association
Jo Dyer, Executive Producer, Sydney Theatre Company
Kristy Edmunds, Artistic Director, Melbourne International Festival of the Arts
Saul Eslake, Economist
Richard Gill, Artistic Director, Victorian Opera
Peter Goldsworthy, Writer
Marieke Hardy, Writer and broadcaster
Sam Haren, Artistic Director, The Border Project
Frank Howarth
Cathy Hunt, Creative consultant
Nicholas Jose, Writer
Andrew Kay, Producer
Ana Kokkinos, Film maker
Sandra Levy
Matthew Lutton, Theatre director
Nick Marchand, Artistic Director, Griffin Theatre
Sue Maslin, Producer, Film Art Doco Pty Ltd
Elizabeth Ann Macgregor, Director, Museum of Contemporary Art
Callum Morton, Visual Artist
Rosemary Myers, Artistic Director, Windmill Performing Arts
Rachel Healy, Director Performing Arts, Sydney Opera House
Liza Lim, Composer
Jan Minchin, Director, Tolarno Galleries
Helen O’Neil, Executive producer
Charles Parkinson, Artistic Director, Tasmanian Theatre Company
David Pledger, Theatre director
Marion Potts, Theatre Director
Katrina Sedgwick, Festival Director, Adelaide Film Festival
David Throsby, Academic
Mary Vallentine, Arts manager
Additional signatories:
The following support the appeal contained in this letter without necessarily endorsing the detailed argument:
John Coetzee, Novelist
Anna Haebich, Writer
Ramona Koval, Writer and broadcaster
Julianne Schultz, Writer
Marcus Westbury, writer and broadcaster
Monday June 2: Those who would also like to sign this letter are invited to do so below. Please put your name, and location (but NOT your full private address) and position, if applicable. All comments on this page are moderated.
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