From Helen Demidenko

31 October 1994

Dear Editor,

I’d like to congratulate Sophie Masson for the even-handedness of her review of B. Wongar’s Raki (ABR 166). She has covered the negative and positive aspects of this book in an exemplary manner.

Nonetheless, it is important for readers of ABR to know that Raki, well-written as it is, is a particularly unpleasant piece of Serbian propaganda.

I read the book on the suggestion of an Aboriginal friend, and, as was the case with her, it made me very angry. Wongar seems to think that it is entirely legitimate to make excuses for the execrable behaviour of his countrymen, as well as link aspects of that behaviour to the tragic history of Australia’s sovereign owners. This is reprehensible.

Believe me, there is nothing wrong with explaining barbarity. A well-written book on the German-Bosnian­Croatian treatment of Serbs during World War II, a book that also fearlessly dealt with current Serbian responses, would be a welcome addition to public debate.

Instead, Wongar has given us a text that excuses barbarity. It dehumanises people who are currently being butchered, equates the UN with the Croatian SS (Ustaša), and blames Kurt Waldheim for all Serbia’s woes – despite the fact that every UN resolution on the former Yugoslavia has been framed under the leadership of Boutros Boutros-Ghali. Maybe Wongar thinks Boutros Boutros-Ghali is ex-SS.

My Aboriginal friend was shocked and deeply hurt that an Australian author – particularly a writer so sensitive to Aboriginal issues in past books – could so blatantly use Aboriginal Australians to push an ‘ethnic barrow’. The deliberate misuse of history in a work of fiction reduces that work to propaganda.

Helen Demidenko
Rochedale, Qld

And B. Wongar’s reply

13 November 1994

Dear Ms Daniel,

You kindly forwarded to me a letter written by Helen Demidenko and asked for my comments.

I had expected a review of Raki to appear in the October (Festival) issue of ABR, along with reviews of other books launched at the Festival, but was surprised to find that my work was omitted.

The reviewer of Raki felt unfamiliar with my work and admitted to finding the novel difficult to understand. She must have been influenced by anti-Serbian propaganda for she seemed to be blaming me for the War in Bosnia. (So much for her impartiality as a reviewer.) I would have ignored it had it not been for H. Demidenko’s letter.

It seems that Ms Demidenko has not read Raki but only the review; quotes not a word from the book. She does not comment on the book but on her hatred of the Serbian people.

It is against the law of this country to hate people because of their race or religion.

Ms Demidenko is no authority on Yugoslavia, Australian literature, or Aboriginal topics. She is using Australian Book Review to stir up ethnic hatred. I might report her case to the appropriate authority in this country.

She states about me: ‘ … execrable behaviour of his countrymen … ’ in Yugoslavia. I am Australian, not Yugoslav. I write in English. Each of my fourteen books is about Australia. I fled Yugoslavia in the 1950s because of political persecution under the Tito regime. The current Civil War there erupted only a few years ago within ethnic borders originally created by Hitler and Tito. Raki is not about the current war in Yugoslavia. It is the fourth book in my Nuclear Quartet dealing with the UN ignorance of the plight of the Aboriginal people. The Aborigines suffered a dual nuclear tragedy – the mining of uranium and Nuclear Testing, both of which took place on tribal land. The UN passed hundreds of resolutions dealing with the conflict in Yugoslavia but not a single one about the Aborigines.

I am an honorary member of Atomic Ex-Servicemen’s Assn., affiliated with the RSL, and I am not a member of any ETHNIC organisation. Ms Demidenko, however, labels my work ‘ … a particularly unpleasant piece of Serbian propaganda’. She denigrates my work without giving any evidence, thus implicating also: my publisher, Angus & Robertson; Mr Tom Shapcott who launched the book; Mr George Papaellinas who endorsed the book; Aboriginal artist Yumayna Burarwana who illustrated the book; The Literature Board who provided a grant for the book; and Mr John Mandelberg who is making a film about my work.

Ms Demidenko’s letter is libellous. Please seek legal advice before you print it.

Yours
B. Wongar

ABR offered right of reply to Sophie Masson who had reviewed Raki in the October 1994 issue, Ed.

Sophie Masson’s reply…

13 September 1995

Dear Editor,

No, I most certainly do not blame B. Wongar for the war in Bosnia: what on earth does he have to do with it? And maybe I am influenced by ‘anti-Serbian propaganda’, but the sections of my review which he objects to form only a small part of it. Here is what I said: ‘But the author leaves himself open to all kinds of criticism, by mentioning the “vicious media campaign” which has “locked Serbia” and turned it into a concentration camp”. Hang on! What about the concentration camps right now, run by Serbs?’

I always look at a book on its merits. I believe my review of Raki was a largely positive one; but I would be less than honest if I did not base my review on my real reactions – which include uneasiness as well as admiration for a difficult and brave book. ‘So much for impartiality’, says B. Wongar, but a reader, a reviewer, is a human being, not a machine. Just as much as a writer is (and I know personally both sides of the great divide).

Sophie Masson
Invergowrie NSW