However, it was only Strzelecki who reached the top; Macarthur returned from Mt Towsend to the camp set up by the Aborigines, Riley was even more behind attending the horses! Next on the journey to Melbourne Charlie Tarra played a vital role saving the travelers from near starvation by catching koalas. The experiences of Aborigines saved the Europeans in this unpleasant climate so the cultural intersection was vital. Strzelecki once before admired Aboriginal skills and the fact that they lived in perfect harmony with the nature. He didn’t forget about them even after leaving Australia, and in his book A Physical Description of New South Wales and van Diemen’s Land (London, 1845) he devoted an entire chapter to the Aboriginal tribes.

This article, originally published in Polish. Click to read it.

The carefully published anthology contains many illustrations, as well as colour reproductions of the festival competition awarded art works. The most important though are the articles, reviews and essays about Strzelecki and Kosciuszko, as well as the people related to them not only in their private life but also literature describing their adventures. Especially about Helen Heney who will be presented later on.

The text is bilingual, English and Polish.

It was a fortunate idea as it broadens the perception of the topics included in the anthology and allows for following through the biography of the planetary voyager who Strzelecki was without a doubt. Before reaching Australia, he already visited a great deal of Europe, both Americas, Pacific archipelagoes, and New Zealand. When landing in Sydney, he was already ahead of his times, just like Kosciuszko he respected the rights of the weak and condemned the slavery. Therefore, he supported the Australian Aborigines though he also understood the need for the civilization process. Today from the perspective of his monument in Jindabyne he undoubtedly contemplates its slow fall.

A major part of the anthology was devoted to a scurrilous book about Strzelecki "In a Dark Glass" (Sydney 1961) by Helen Heney. There are also reviews of Lech Paszkowski and Professor Jerzy Zubrzycki describing this truly unfair attempt of ‘biography’ and it is worth noticing that even the title suggested the readers the author’s intentions. Both of them rightly defend Strzelecki similarly to a thoroughly documented article by Dr Ernestyna Skurjat-Kozek "In the Name of Historical Truth". Other opinions in the discussion (Lukasz Swiatek, Alan Andrews) also defend the Polish traveler. Not surprisingly since the number of malicious remarks and distortions in Helen Heney’s book is great, and to add to the confusion it contrasts with the dissertation about Strzelecki by the same author which in 1937 granted Miss Heney a M.A. degree at the University of Sydney.

And all of a sudden the dissertation facts are distorted in a popular biography "In a Dark Glass". Professor Zubrzycki proved how Helen Heney fabricated the quotes from Strzelecki’s travel reports in order to present him in a bad light. Zubrzycki also provides examples of ignorance for basic facts and events in the Polish history which is another mystery since Miss Heney spent 5 years in Poland (1931-1936), knew Polish culture and language and was fascinated with it. As a result of her turn (of unknown reasons!) "Australian Dictionary of Biography" was provided with a distorted biographical entry of Strzelecki which misinforms millions of readers. Therefore, it is of great importance to prove the distortions in his life.

Cover graphic design - Lukasz Swiatek

It would be easier than establishing the reasons for the change of the author’s attitude towards Strzelecki. There are several hypotheses such as the one that claims that feminist Heney decided to punish Strzelecki with Adyna – so write the book from the point of view betrayed Adyna (E. Skurjat-Kozek). An interesting hypothesis since it strongly emphasises an overwhelming dislike (or even hostility!) towards Strzelecki as Heney knew his biography well enough not to rely on lies.

Adyna’s father disapproved of her marriage with Strzelecki and the refusal was one of the reasons for his emigration. So, how then could Adyna be considered betrayed? Solving the riddle is even more difficult after the disappearance of some letters from Heney papers file deposited in National Library of Australia. Cui bono?

Another hypothesis is the heartbreak of Miss Heney who was in love with a Polish officer. Rejected she was ‘offended’ at Poland and the Polish and her new feelings focused on Strzelecki. She expressed her anger on a representative of Polishness, gentry or in general a Pole – world citizen – who so magnificently went down in the history of Australia, England and even Ireland. His charity campaigns on the green land in the famine years (1847-1848) should not have irritated the English so much to seek revenge after 100 years as even queen Victoria awarded him orders. Even the English lobby down under wouldn’t have wished for revenge for help offered to Ireland though after WWII there could still be seen some nasty door signs in Australia – ‘Irish and dogs – back door!’

Therefore, yet another hypothesis arises on the horizon and in order to understand it is necessary to remind some of the practices used in the Polish People’s Republic. Naturally the regime supported ‘their’ writers, party members and agents. So they financed their translations and publishing their books abroad. Therefore, for example, it was established that as much as 150 thousand dollars were spent on translating Andrzej Kusniewicz’s novels, grants for publishing houses in France or even to critics (!) of French magazines. Kusniewicz was an average writer but as comrade ‘Andrzej’ for 20 years reported his colleagues from The Writer’s Union to the UB, Polish secret police. The support of his career was a kind of bonus from the authorities.

The mechanism of these activities may also suggest another theory as for the sudden change in Helen Heney’s opinion, her scurrilous book about Strzelecki. This work might have been supported by an anti-Polish lobby or communist agency. The book was published in 1961 in Sydney so it was written in the 50s when the procommunist influence was quite strong in the so called lefties, and in the labour unions. The attempts of ASIO infiltration also proved pro-Russian sympathies which may not have been as strong as those in Italy after the war where Poles-liberators were disliked as the Italians after Mussolini’s fall suddenly discovered the ‘star’ of Stalin and after not having been able to introduce communism in the course of free elections, though partisans were a minority, they were steering towards the Red Brigades.

Even in Australia filosoviet disease was accompanied by many eccentricities, intrigues, and Petrov Affair in 1954 helped the Australians realise the possibility of Soviet spying schemes. The Australian government decided to stop any diplomatic relations with Moscow for the next five years but were they maintained on other levels? There were many symphatisers so who knows if certain agents didn’t also contact Miss Heney offering her a large cheque for writing a book discrediting the Pole who rendered a great service downunder. The cutting of quotes from Strzelecki’s works might have been supported with financial ‘arguments’. Soviet secret services consequently persecuted remarkable Polish people no matter the latitude and in case of Strzelecki it was also a matter of fighting a class opponent. The world of proletariat couldn’t stand counts or those awarded by monarchs.

This hypothesis could also be supported by the fact of Miss Heney visiting the Polish People’s Republic where she went following her beloved officer who risked returning to Poland after the Yalta conference. She didn’t win her love but we don’t know who else she met there. In those days foreigners were under special ‘supervision’ of secret services as well as the soviet agency acting with impunity in Warsaw, and all over Poland.

I don’t claim that it is what happened but would like to add one more hypothesis to those presented in the anthology and - for the sake of solving the riddle - it’s worth exploring this theory as well. One way or another it is vital to strive for introducing an objective biographical entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography as Miss Heney’s creation is absolutely inaccurate simply ‘biased and distorted’. Just for this matter it is worth mentioning the alleged business of Strzelecki in Russia when our count lived under Prussian rule! Miss Heney’s stories about Strzelecki being a ‘bad’ Pole as he didn’t participate in the November Uprising are nothing more than pathetic. At that time he was getting ready to leave the country and besides geniuses such as Slowacki, Mickiewicz, Chopin etc. – Strzelecki’s ghost stood among them – never saw battles. Their mission was to serve the nation or humanity in the field of culture or science.

After having read the festival anthology, there is only one opinion certain – Strzelecki was of the kind of earthly ‘angels’ who save humanity and wherever it is possible protecting our planet from turning to hell. The anthology is also a wonderful source of information about the festival heroes, especially Strzelecki and a dossier for appeal to change the unfair biographical entry in Australian Dictionary of Biography. In this aspect it is even a historical anthology.

Written by Marek Baterowicz
Translated by Agnieszka Zolek

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