Writers against nuclear tests

By Craig Cormick CANBERRA — Local writers have responded to a call from the international writers' organisation, PEN, for writers to voice their protest against the French government's nuclear tests using their favourite medium — writing. On October 3, 15 poets, journalists and authors read from their work at Tilley's Divine Cafe. The war poems of Geoff Page, anti-nuclear poetry by Anne Edgeworth and a reading from West Block by Sara Dowse, which described the workings of federal cabinet in formulating its uranium policy, were among the readings. The poets Alan Gould, John Foulcher and Mark O'Connor read their poetry, and prose readings were given by Marian Eldridge and Dorothy Johnston. Sara Dowse, president of PEN ACT, said that PEN was dedicated to ensuring that freedom of expression is protected throughout the world. Dowse, who became active in the anti-Vietnam war and women's movements in the late 1960s, said that the experience made her aware of "how important and useful it can be for like-minded people to get together and air their views". For some decades Canberra writers have been concerned about nuclear testing. This made it possible to put together a collection of quality writing under the theme "Protesting the Testing". It includes Dorothy Johnston's Maralinga My Love, and Geoff Page's Winter Vision. Johnston, also a PEN member, said that her research for Maralinga my Love involved talking to many Aboriginal people and veterans, some of whom were sick and dying as a result of the tests. She was devastated when the French resumed the tests in the Pacific. "I thought somehow we'd gotten past it with the end of the Cold War, and the disarmament in Europe." Poet Mark O'Connor became interested in nuclear testing in the Pacific when he was writing his first book of poetry, Reef Poems, on Herron Island in the Great Barrier Reef. "It seems extraordinary to risk destroying a Pacific atoll — one of the most beautiful things imaginable", he said. O'Connor is also an environmental activist and is the co-convenor, with Anne Edgeworth, of Writers for an Ecologically Sustainable Population. The anthology Protesting the Testing — Canberra Writers Speak out Against Nuclear Testing in the Pacific is available from PEN ACT, PO Box 3514, Manuka ACT, 2603, or the Left Book Club for $9.95.