A Dangerously Red War-Atah: Rethinking the Work of Lucien Henry, French Communard, Australian Artist

Lucien Henry was a French revolutionary and artist who served time as a political prisoner on a penal colony in New Caledonia for the role he played during the Paris Commune. Once pardoned by the French State, Henry settled in Australia and played a key role as an artist and art educator advocating for an Australian style. This article examines the intersection between Henry’s designs and his ideology expressed through his little-known fictional publication titled The War-Atah: Australian Legend (1891). It argues that this publication, structured in the style of a legendary tale, offers glimpses into an alternate reading of Henry’s designs based on his socialist ideologies. It intertwines Indigenous and ecological narratives drawing on symbols and values associated with the Paris Commune such as oral storytelling, the symbolic weight of the colour red and French Republican imagery.