Sharpe, Wendy Elizabeth (War Artist, b.1960)

Collection relating to the official war artist, Wendy Sharpe, who deployed to East Timor in December 1999.

The collection includes an original handwritten diary, covering Wendy Sharpe’s experience with INTERFET in East Timor. Entries begin on 12 December and close two weeks later, on 30 December 1999. Sharpe was given the honorary status of captain, attached to the Army History Section. Her role was to create artworks representing Australian peacekeepers engaged in operations in East Timor; particularly representing their interaction with the local population. Sharpe was the first female official war artist to be appointed by the Australian War Memorial since the Second World War.

Sharpe's diary entries are highly detailed. Her entries develop from descriptions of conditions to recounting instances of appalling cruelty inflicted on the East Timorese; on 26 December she writes, "When people started crossing the border, IDPs [Internally Displaced Persons] were frightened because they’d been told terrible propaganda about INTERFET. Ben said when they got to the checkpoint – it was just another checkpoint in a whole series, often where their belongings are taken from them. When they were helped down from the trucks, given water and told it's alright, you’re safe – welcome home', they cried – I’m crying writing this and can't see the paper. I have heard unbearable things. Ben said they saw a child staggering down from the hills like he was drunk – when he got closer they saw they’d put out both his eyes. He was a child."

Sharpe writes of hearing terrible things, but she stresses these things are never recounted ghoulishly, but rather in a shocked way. On her final day in East Timor, 29 December, she writes "The unbearable cruelty of the militia/TNI is beyond belief. It's impossible to imagine."