Antinuclear

The State Government has agreed to fund the reburial of the skeletal remains of the child — which a respected Aboriginal elder says died following the Maralinga atomic testing more than 50 years ago.

Coroner Mark Johns has ordered a comprehensive report from police, which will likely determine if an inquest will be held.

Traditional owners of the APY Lands, who are devastated that the remains were disturbed, have engaged a barrister to push for the inquiry and to seek changes to state and federal legislation to ensure such sites are better protected.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Kyam Maher has also written to police and Coroner Mark Johns, asking both to ensure “appropriate policies are in place and followed’’ to avoid future incidents……..

The bizarre case has created tensions within the APY community, with traditional owners and elders upset the remains were removed from the burial cave, near Mimili, in the Sandy Bore indigenous Protected Area.

Traditional owner Rex Tjami, who is also a director of APY corporation, has engaged barrister Rosanne McInnes, a former magistrate, to seek further protection for burial sites from such action………

Mr Tjami’s affidavit states when he went to the cave region near Sandy Bore — after being alerted to the discovery — he recognised the area and recalled the story his mother had told him about the burial cave.

“The child and the parents of the child died a long time ago. They were related to my mother and my uncle and other families. They came from the area where there was nuclear testing,’’ he states.

“My mother and my uncle told me the parents were staying in the large cave. They and the child became sick. The child died. The parents cut their hair, wrapped it around the child and wrapped the child in special plants. They put the child’s body in a smaller cave opening into the wall of the large cave to protect it. They used sticks from a special plant to fence out predators. After they buried the child, the parents left the cave. Before they died, the parents told their relatives — our family — about the cave in the hill where the child was buried.’’……….
“We want protection for our heritage. Not people from Adelaide digging up old graves and taking away the bodies of our people without telling us.’’

Maralinga — Decades of devastation

The British government detonated seven nuclear devices at Maralinga between 1956 and 1963.

The explosions devastated the desert countryside — home of the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara Aboriginal people — for tens of kilometres around ground zero.

While the British government moved the majority of the traditional inhabitants away before the blasts, many still in the desert were subject to severe radiation fallout. Those who wandered in following the explosions were scrubbed by medics before being removed from the area.

Denied access to their homelands, many walked cross country to northern Aboriginal settlements, while others walked south to Yalata — where their descendants still reside today — while others headed for the WA desert.

More than 50 years later, the Maralinga Lands are still restricted because of contamination and access is strictly controlled as part of the Woomera Prohibited Area.

An initial clean-up of the site was conducted in 1967.

The subsequent McClelland Royal Commission into the tests handed down its report in 1985, finding that significant radiation hazards still existed and another clean-up was conducted in 2000.

The McClelland report also found evidence of significant disabilities and illness caused by radiation sickness in both veterans and Aboriginal inhabitants.

In 1994, compensation of $13.5 million was paid to the Aboriginal inhabitants to settle all claims arising from the Maralinga atomic testing.

Originally published as Final indignity for tiny atomic test victim      http://www.ntnews.com.au/news/national/remains-of-aboriginal-infant-who-died-after-1950s-maralinga-atomic-tests-exhumed-from-burial-cave/news-story/d82a7052f2562bc20bb79c6ac1b9b82e