Antinuclear

How a British nuclear testing program ‘forced poison’ onto Maralinga Traditional Owners

Indigenous Elders say they are once again being threatened by nuclear technology on their lands

SBS Sydney Lang, 20 June 24

Indigenous Elders are warning that their communities’ connections to sacred sites may be severed by nuclear power plants proposed by the Opposition.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton revealed earlier this week seven sites where the Coalition would seek to build nuclear power plants if elected.

One of the proposed sites is on Indigenous elder Aunty Janine Smith’s Country in Tarong, Queensland.

According to Smith, the proposal is a “death sentence to the land”.

Also responding to Dutton’s proposal, the Queensland Conservation Council’s Paul Spearim said: “White Australia has a shortsighted approach to Country”.

“You have forced poison onto the lands of Traditional Owners, and now Peter Dutton is proposing to create poisons that would last [hundreds of thousands] of years,” Spearim said.

First Nations and nuclear: A troubled history

Indigenous Australians’ fears about nuclear technology threatening their land and livelihoods are not occurring in a vacuum.

During the 1950s and 1960s, 

the British government used the South Australian outback as a site for atomic bomb testing.

Keen to develop nuclear weapons of its own during the Cold War, the British government decided the remoteness of Maralinga and Emu Field made them ideal sites for nuclear weapon testing.

With agreement from the Australian government, the people living on Maralinga Tjarutja lands were relocated and told they could not return to their land. Many were rounded up and relocated to the Lutheran mission in Yalata, around 200km away.

The nuclear tests saw the wide-scale dispersion of radioactive material into the local environment.

Indigenous people living in and around the area, as well as British and Australian soldiers, were all exposed to radiation.

In the wake of the tests, there were many reports of cancer, blood diseases, eye problems, skin rashes, blindness, and vomiting — all of which are symptoms of radioactive poisoning.

It was not until 2009 that the land used for weapons testing was handed back to Traditional Owners…………………………………………………………………………………………………. more https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/maralinga-how-australias-nuclear-testing-program-forced-poison-onto-the-lands-of-traditional-owners/zcuxce8o6

June 22, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | aboriginal issues