Australian Story: Mar 25

Australian Story has a follow-up episode on war artist Ben Quilt, who featured seven months ago.

This episode is introduced by Craig Reucassel.

Seven months on from our first program, Ben Quilty has transformed from artist to angry advocate, on behalf of some of the soldiers with whom he’s spent long hours in his studio.

We first profiled official war artist Ben Quilty seven months ago as he worked on portraits of Australian soldiers who’d served in Afghanistan. Quilty spoke then of the strong bonds he’d formed with many of his subjects, including some of the elite special operations troops who he says revealed a depth of emotional distress that shocked him to his core.

Six months later, Quilty’s exhibition is now on tour and attracting much interest.

In the intervening time, his own journey from artist to angry advocate has led him to argue for better treatment for returned soldiers who he says continue to suffer from their time in the war zone.

It’s devastating and emotionally challenging for me to watch these people that I’ve worked with for a long time slowly but surely, one after the other, fall down in an emotional wreckage, says Quilty.

He claims PTSD is common and that support systems are inadequate. He says he feels a responsibility as a citizen – above and beyond his duties as a former official war artist – to discuss these issues publicly.

These eleven people had given me an enormous trust to tell their story, and it ended up the buck sort of stopped with me … It’s a stigmatised injury within defence and the people who have the condition are often pushed out the back door with a rehabilitation program, says Quilty.

ADF spokesperson Rear Admiral Robyn Walker says “If Quilty, or any of the people he has been talking to, are worried about the mental health of any of our serving or ex-serving members, particularly if they thought they are at risk, I would urge them to either get in contact with me or at least pass their names on.”

Monday, March 25 on ABC1