Michael Leunig

Leunig, a fifth generation Australian,^[1] was born in East Melbourne and grew up in Footscray, an inner western suburb, where he went to Footscray North Primary School.^[2] He then went to Maribyrnong High School, but as the school had not finished being built, he first had to attend classes held at the nearby Royal Melbourne Showgrounds in Ascot Vale.^[3] He failed his final year examinations, twice.^[3]

After working as a labourer in an abattoir,^[4] Leunig enrolled at the Swinburne Film and Television School, where he was at first interested in making documentaries. He was conscripted in the Vietnam War call-up, but he registered as a conscientious objector; he was rejected on health grounds when it was revealed that he was deaf in one ear.^[5]

Leunig began his cartoon career while at Swinburne in 1965^[6] when his cartoons appeared in the Monash University student newspaper Lot's Wife.^[7] In the early 1970s his work appeared in the radical/satirical magazines Nation Review, The Digger, and London's Oz magazine, as well as mainstream publications including Newsday and Woman's Day.

The main outlet for Leunig's work has been the daily Fairfax Media newspapers, Melbourne's The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has also provided airtime to Leunig to discuss his views on a range of political and philosophical issues.^[8]

Leunig's drawings are done with a sparse and quivering line, usually in black and white with ink wash; the human characters are always drawn with exaggerated noses. This style served him well in his early years, when he gained a loyal following for his quirky take on social issues. He also made increasingly frequent forays into a personal fantasy world of whimsy, featuring small figures with teapots balanced on their heads, grotesquely curled hair and many ducks.^[9]

Leunig has frequently satirised concepts such as Americanisation, greed, consumerism, corporations and warmongering, in a personal proclamation against the War on Terror.^{[citation needed]} Readers and critics took special note of his parodies of political matters, especially those concerning former Australian prime minister John Howard and former American president George W. Bush. These have earned Leunig a description as a "political cartoonist",^[10] although only some of his works are political in nature or reference.

His work has also frequently explored spiritual, religious and moral themes.^{[citation needed]}

 

Leunig's cartoons have occasionally been a source of controversy. In 2008, he wrote that "Artists must never shrink from a confrontation with society or the state."^[11]

Between 1995 and 2000, he drew the ire of working mothers by satirising the heavy reliance upon childcare services in Australian culture in several of his works.^{[citation needed]}

Leunig opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq commenting that "if a cartoonist is representing the government line on Iraq, they're nothing better than a propagandist".^[10]

In 2006, Fairfax Media censored a cartoon in New South Wales, but not in Victoria, which criticised the then prime minister, John Howard.^[12]

Leunig has also stated his opposition to the Israeli government. Three of his 2004–2006 cartoons drew letters of protest nationally and internationally. The three pieces took as their subjects: IDF bomber pilots (13 April 2004); Sheikh Ahmed Yassin's assassination order from Ariel Sharon (11 January 2006); and the renewed Gaza occupation (12 July 2006). A fourth piece was refused publication and has since been more widely criticised for potentially confounding his opposition to the policies of Israel with an antisemitic, generalised subversion of the Jewish experience, by relying upon a reference to the Jewish Holocaust.^{[citation needed]} This cartoon came to international attention after it was entered in an Iranian competition conceived by the newspaper Hamshahri as retaliation for the Muhammad cartoons controversy. Leunig denied he had submitted the cartoon as an entry to the competition and said "I've been set up horribly, maliciously."^[13] He demanded that his cartoon be withdrawn; the newspaper did this and also apologised to him.^[13] It later emerged that the cartoon had been submitted as a prank by Richard Cooke, a web contributor to the Australian comedic team The Chaser.^[14]

Leunig has partially defined his position with this statement:

I have a Jewish friend, a Holocaust survivor, who says that she never could have lived in Israel because in her view it is a totalitarian state. ... I believe that something fundamental and vital, not just to Israel but to the entire world, has been gravely mishandled by the present Israeli administration and it bothers me deeply. It is my right to express it.^[10]

— Michael Leunig, 13 January 2006, The Age

In November 2018, Leunig's long running association with the Melbourne Comedy Festival came to an end after 30 years, after artists expressed concerns about being associated with Leunig's anti-vaccination views, and opposition to marriage equality plebiscite. Leunig had designed the logo for the festival every year since 1988. Another Melbourne Cartoonist, Judy Horacek became the festival's branding artist for the following year. The festival did not release a statement regarding Leunig's replacement.^[15]

In September 2021, Leunig's cartoon contributions for the editorial page in the Monday edition of The Age newspaper in Melbourne were ended following the paper's rejection for publication of a cartoon he had drawn in response to COVID-19 vaccination requirements in Australia.^[16][17] The cartoon compared resistance to vaccine requirements to the Tank Man in Tiananmen Square.^[18] He continued to contribute cartoons for the Saturday edition of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald until he was sacked in August 2024.^[19]

In the series of cartoons that Leunig has created over the duration of his career, a number of characters have persistently appeared, including:

• The Duck^[20]
• Mr Curly – a contented character who is at ease in the natural world^[21][22]
• Vasco Pyjama – a restless wanderer who sometimes seeks the counsel of Mr Curly^[22]

Leunig has, from a very early stage in his career, often included his own handwritten poetry within his cartoons;^[23] subsequently he has also published books of poetry. He has been very open about his themes, in interviews about his work.^[24][25][26]

Leunig's first marriage, to Pamela Munro, ended in divorce. He married his second wife, Helga, in 1992 but separated in the 2010s. A film documentary about his life by Kasimir Burgess, The Leunig Fragments, was released in 2020 and reveals various difficulties that Leunig has experienced with family relationships.^[27] He did not attend his parents' funerals^[28] and is not in regular contact with his siblings.^[27] His four children were all born on notable dates: Gus on Guy Fawkes Day 1974, Sunny on Valentine's Day 1980, Minna on Australia Day 1992 and Felix on Christmas Day 1994.^[29] All of his children were homeschooled.^{[citation needed]}

His sister, Mary Leunig (b. 1950), is also an accomplished cartoonist.^[30]

Leunig has a studio in Northcote, Melbourne, and a property in north-east Victoria.^[31]

• 1999 – Leunig was declared an Australian Living Treasure by the National Trust of Australia
• There has been a Melbourne tram decorated with his cartoon characters^{[citation needed]}
• 2006 – Leunig featured strongly at the opening ceremony of the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games. In the performance, the philosophical and mystical nature of his work was on display. It featured a "boy and his duck" and the boy's dreams and visions. Leunig was heard reading a stanza of his poem as a voice-over.
• Leunig was the creator of a popular iGoogle theme.^[32]
• 2016 – Metrosideros leunigii, the oldest described fossil species of the flowering plant genus Metrosideros, was named after Leunig.^[33]

In 2006 Australian musician Gyan Evans released the album Billy the Rabbit, which was based on the poetry of Leunig. Gyan and Leunig launched the album at the Melbourne Writers Festival, with Leunig illustrating during Gyan's singing. They also performed together at the Byron Bay Writers Festival and the Sydney Opera House.^[34]

Collections of press cartoons and original art and/or poems

Multi-decade compilations

• Official website
• Video: Michael Leunig in conversation with Jane Sullivan, Writers at the Convent, February 2009
• Interview with Michael Leunig, Enough Rope with Andrew Denton, 2006^{[dead link]}
• "Feature – Michael Leunig", 27 June 2004, The Age
• "Michael Leunig", Jane Hutcheon, One Plus One Australian Broadcasting Corporation, December 2017