The racism that imploded Adelaide Writers' Week
After a boycott, what is rebuilt?
Hello and HNY (I know it’s too late to say that)!!!! Generally, pieces by the Cheek team exist behind a paywall - but we wanted this one to go to everyone. We are trying to increase our paid subscriber base this year to help grow our team. If you can, please consider giving us $70 for a whole year of content (you’re also supporting the free commentary we deliver every day).
In September of last year, Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah published a work of fiction, Discipline. The novel is exceptional, set in Sydney during Ramadan between two contrasting Muslim storylines that explore how racism erodes our media and academic institutions, silencing Palestinian voices.
I hope the Adelaide Festival Board members have picked up a copy.
Last Thursday I was one of more than a hundred authors who received an email from Chair of the Adelaide Festival Board, Tracey Whiting AM. At the time of receiving the notification I was walking through a museum in Vietnam with my partner. Trying to disconnect from the news cycle in the final days of our break, the seriousness of the subject line took me by surprise. Opening the email on my phone, anger came over me as I skimmed through the attached statement.
Two paragraphs immediately stood out:
As the Board responsible for the Adelaide Festival organisation and all Adelaide Writers’ Week events, staff, volunteers and participants, we have today advised scheduled writer Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah that the Board has formed the judgment that we do not wish to proceed with her scheduled appearance at next month’s Writers’ Week.
Whilst we do not suggest in any way that Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah’s or her writings have any connection with the tragedy at Bondi, given her past statements we have formed the view that it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi.
One of the only Palestinian writers at the Adelaide Festival had been removed. The justification? A vague stringing together of three elements: (1) the Bondi terror attack (2) Dr Abdel-Fattah’s ‘past statements’ (3) cultural sensitivity.
Wondering if I had missed something significant, I immediately went to Dr Abdel-Fattah’s Instagram page and did some quick online searches. The most prominent posts and media coverage were exactly what I had remembered. In early 2025 Education Minister Jason Clare requested the board of the Australian Research Council (ARC) investigate the awarding of Dr Abdel-Fattah’s research fellowship, an alleged act of political interference. The most recent posts and news articles I came across announced that after ten months of investigation, the allegations levelled against Dr Abdel-Fattah had been cleared and the suspension of her ARC fellowship was lifted.
Now, Dr Abdel-Fattah was being silenced by a festival board with no concrete references. Just vague, evasive words. There was no alternate way I could interpret what was happening: the board was conflating a Palestinian woman’s criticism of Israel’s genocide with the Bondi terror attack. My reading was that her identity and advocacy deemed her ‘culturally insensitive’.
I hit reply and cancelled both of my events at Adelaide Writers’ Week. The disproportionate applause white writers like myself are receiving for boycotting proves just how low the expectations are for public figures in this country. It is the bare minimum to stand in solidarity with marginalised people against the institutional racism of white Australia. I know I have failed both privately and publicly many times to be truly intersectional in my feminism, and every single day, I know I benefit from the labour provided by so many women of colour like Dr Abdel-Fattah, who work to educate and call out how we each participate and are complicit in systems of oppression.
To withdraw from a festival that has silenced the most pertinent voice is a small step toward allyship.
While the board’s reference to the Bondi terror attack rightly drew the most attention, another paragraph in their pathetic statement stuck out to me:
We understand these Board decisions will likely be disappointing to many in our community. We also recognise our request to Dr Abdel-Fattah will be labelled and will cause discomfort and pressure to other participants.
Will likely be disappointing. Will be labelled. Will cause discomfort and pressure. And why is that? It gives me the same feeling as being trapped with the greasiest guy at a party who starts a sentence with “I’m not racist, but..”. Preparing a PR statement on the fall, but manoeuvring around mentioning you’re the one pushing off the cliff is really something.
To say this is an act of anti-Palestinian racism is not to ‘label’ but to accurately identify. To boycott an event that censors Palestinian voices is not a response stemming from disappointment, but an active choice to rail against a Zionist lobby that seeks to control every major institution in this country. To speak loudly about this is not because of discomfort or pressure, but a duty that we each have to use whatever platform is available to us to stand against censorship. The Board should be ashamed. This was a lesson in freedom of speech that should have been learned after the mass boycott of Bendigo Writers Festival only six months ago. The event is now set to take a ‘hiatus’ in 2026.
Instead of reflecting on their actions following the public response and reversing the decision, the Adelaide Festival board has disintegrated. Three members resigned on Saturday. On Sunday, Marque Lawyers, acting on behalf of Dr Abdel-Fattah, wrote to Chair Tracey Whiting AM demanding explicit references to statements that formed their reasoning for her removal, as a matter of basic procedural fairness. By Sunday evening, Whiting resigned as Chair of the Adelaide Festival board. Racism and cowardice are a common combination.
The board is not a reflection of the broader festival team. I am also thinking of the many organisers, volunteers and loyal attendees watching on as a small but powerful group set fire to an event series that brought so much joy to so many. The Board’s decision rejects the incredible leadership and values of Writers’ Week director Louise Adler, who has been a consistent defender of Palestinian speakers at past events. There are many amazing people I have had the pleasure of speaking with in the lead up to this event who I am sure do not stand with this decision. The devastation is immeasurable.
The purpose of writers’ festivals, and of the arts more broadly, is to express the complexities of the human experience. These live events are opportunities to sustain, to educate, to emote, to inspire, and to remain curious about ourselves and each other. What was most exciting about Adelaide Writers’ Week is how uniquely positioned it was as the largest free festival in the country. At a time where the cost of living crisis is smashing the arts, this accessibility is golden. Yet, these spaces in Australia remain a stronghold for polite, white conversations with the same faces year after year (myself included). The annihilation of this year’s festival sends a stronger message than ever, this must change.
Buy a copy of Discipline this week.
Readings purchase notes:
I'd like to thank the Adelaide Festival board for raising awareness of author Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah and their work.
I sincerely hope that the Royal Commission will properly give consideration to the rise of far right groups of ALL denominations here in Australia as well as abroad which have created the kind of social instability that certain groups say they fear.
It is wrong to focus attention on one particular religious group when, for more than a decade, other groups have been subject to relentlessly insulting bigotry and suspicion.
If the RC is going to advance any positive good for the community it must be free from any and all pressure, political and otherwise, from any domestic or foreign powers.