Kieran Finnane

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Kieran Finnane is a journalist and writer based in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. She is best known as one of the founding journalists of the now Alice Springs News Online as well as for her book Trouble: On Trial in Central Australia.^[1] Her next book Peace Crimes: Pine Gap, national security and dissent is due to be published in August 2020.^[2]

Biography[]

Finnane has an educational background in arts and film studies and completed her studies at the University of Sydney and the University of Paris (Panthéon-Sorbonne). Following the completion of her studies she worked in television before moving to Alice Springs in 1987.^[3]

In 1994 Finnane and husband Erwin Chlanda founded the Alice Springs News and it soon became the largest circulation independent newspaper in the Northern Territory. In 1997 the newspaper shifted from printed to online publication and became the Alice Springs News Online.^[4]

Finnane is also a regular contributor to publications around Australia^[5] including the Alice Springs News Online, Art Monthly Australasia, Artlink, Griffith Review, Inside Story and The Saturday Paper.

In 2016 Finnane released her first book Trouble: on Trial in Central Australia which was published by UQP. This book examines the complexities of life in Alice Springs, particularly the Alice Springs Town Camps,^[6][7] and what is revealed in the criminal court. This book attempts to dispassionately present the horrors of crimes committed in Central Australia and it is particularly focused on the violence of Aboriginal men, under the influence of alcohol, towards their kin; their wives, brothers and cousins and loved ones more generally.^[8] Barry Hill says of Trouble:^[8]

Trouble is reporting in the liberal, Western mode at its best. It seeks to be compassionate, full of right love, you might say, but the love is conducted without falling into sentimentality, on the one hand, or in defensive historical polemic, on the other.

— Dogs and Grog, Reason and Lovelessness: essays, encounters, reviews 1980-2017

Finnane's second book, Peace Crimes: Pine Gap, national security and dissent which was published in August 2020. This book will looks at the closely guarded and secretive military facility called Pine Gap, close by to Alice Springs, with a particular focus on the arrest of the Peace Pilgrims, nonviolent activists.^[2] One of the activists, Paul Christie, voluntarily dropped to his knees when arrested, two km's within the boundary of Pine Gap, holding flowers and a ceremonial rattle only to be charged and prosecuted under the Defence (Special Undertakings) Act 1952; a procedure normally intended for offences such as treason, espionage and terrorism-related matters.^[9]

Finnane won Watch This Space's annual Lofty Award in 2013 for her contribution to arts writing and criticism in Central Australia.^[10]

Finanne talks about her life in a Desert Tracks interview with ABC Alice Springs journalist Emma Haskin where she talks about her life in the 'Red Centre' and meeting her husband Erwin Chlanda.^[11]

References[]