Antinuclear

Koonibba looks to the future as a rocket launch site, but one elder is concerned about impact on sacred sites

ABC Eyre Peninsula / By Jodie Hamilton and Amelia Costigan,  Sat 11 May 2024

When an 11.5 metre German rocket was launched from the tiny South Australian former mission town of Koonibba last Friday, it lit the candle for self-determination and the future of local Indigenous youth.

But one elder says the project risks damaging sacred women’s sites and the next generation’s connection to country.

Kokotha elder Sue Coleman-Haseldine was camped out in the firing line on the rocket range with a handful of supporters to protest the space venture.

However, the majority of the 125 residents of Koonibba — down from a population of 145 in 2016 — supported the launch.

The community negotiated and developed the venture in partnership with Adelaide company Southern Launch over six years.

The partnership is already delivering educational benefits for town’s small school and nearby Ceduna schools, with plans for a space observatory to attract tourists.  

Connection to country

But Ms Coleman-Haseldine has vowed to continue protesting against the site.

She is worried it could help develop weapons technology, the scars of which still plague the lands to the north of Koonibba at Maralinga and Emu Fields, where the Australian and British governments tested nuclear weapons from 1952 to 1963.

Ms Coleman Haseldine was born at the Koonibba Mission in 1951 and said she was no stranger to battles, having addressed the United Nations in 2017 about the impact of those weapons tests at Maralinga.

Walking across a large granite rock outcrop, she points out symbols and talks about the stories of the land.

With family and friends, she has been maintaining and cleaning sacred deep waterholes and clearing dirt and soil washed into shallow surface rock pools, to provide safer drinking holes for emus, kangaroos, birds and reptiles.

She set up camp in the Yumbarra Conservation Park, part of the 41,000 square kilometre rocket launch range, which allows for rocket re-entry and retrievals.

The Yellabinna Wilderness Protection Area to the north is also in the rocket launch range

“That rocket launching, I think it could start fires, it could just hit one of these rocks and smash it, starting to break the storylines,” Ms Coleman-Haseldine said.

A Department for Environment and Water spokesperson said the department ensured Southern Launch had consulted appropriately with the Far West Coast Aboriginal Corporation and the Yumbarra Conservation Park Co-management Board…………………………..

Ms Coleman-Haseldine said she had been going to the area from childhood and had a custodial role to protect the land, animals and stories.

“This area is all part of the Seven Sisters dreaming,” she said.

“Country gives us bush med, food, teaches the kids out here how to survive.

“And it teaches them respect for the country and each other, and the animals…………………………………………..  https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-11/koonibba-rocket-launch-aboriginal-community-protest-kokotha-sa/103808598

May 13, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | aboriginal issues, South Australia