Violence and cover-up in the taking of Aboriginal land
Slaughter on stolen lands, The Age, August 10, 2013 Review By Raymond Evans of . “FORGOTTEN WAR”, by Henry Reynolds
While we remember our casualties in overseas wars, no toll exists for Aboriginal deaths during the brutal colonisation of Australia.
“……the kind of paradox that Reynolds gamely wrestles with throughout this closely argued account. For the past 40 years, in a succession of such volumes, he has continued to wrestle with it, approaching it from those two peripheries of the Australian imagination, Queensland and Tasmania, and coming closer and closer each time to pinning it to the mat. Patiently, and with admirable, indomitable energy, he keeps informing the Australian public of things they need to know, but which many of them do not wish to hear.
What he is now basically saying is: Forget the so-called history wars. They represent a hollow, media-driven campaign to deny the undeniable. Focus instead on the war for Australia: that is, the extended and bloody destruction of Aboriginal first nations across almost 150 years of frontier strife – the utter territorial dispossession of perhaps as many as 1 million people, and a unilateral assumption of their sovereignty, accomplished with swaths of escalating violence.
This was, as Reynolds writes, ”one of the greatest appropriations of land in world history”, unmatched elsewhere in speed and scale. It is the basis of every leaven of prosperity in Australia today. An accompanying ”progressive transfer of sovereignty” was equally a blatant ”transaction of global significance”.
It was ”a double usurpation” of both the right to exercise authority over one’s territory and of customary title to land. What was done here, in short, was anomalous and ”manifestly not consonant with international law or the practice of nations at the time”. It was, Reynolds claims, ”an outrage, a violation of international usage, the assertion of a monstrous principle”.
No wonder, then, that it led dually to such degrees of violence and cover-up. Continue reading
Book: A Short History of Nuclear Folly
A Short History of Nuclear Folly [Hardcover] http://www.amazon.com/A-Short-History-Nuclear-Folly/dp/1612191738/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369261455&sr=8-1&keywords=short+history+of+nuclear+folly
Rudolph Herzog, the acclaimed author of Dead Funny, presents a devastating account of history’s most irresponsible uses of nuclear technology. From the rarely-discussed nightmare of “Broken Arrows” (40 nuclear weapons lost during the Cold War) to “Operation Plowshare” (a proposal to use nuclear bombs for large engineering projects, such as a the construction of a second Panama Canal using 300 H-Bombs), Herzog focuses in on long-forgotten nuclear projects that nearly led to disaster.
In an unprecedented people’s history, Herzog digs deep into archives, interviews nuclear scientists, and collects dozens of rare photos. He explores the “accidental” drop of a Nagasaki-type bomb on a train conductor’s home, the implanting of plutonium into patients’ hearts, and the invention of wild tactical nukes, including weapons designed to kill enemy astronauts.
Told in a riveting narrative voice, Herzog—the son of filmmaker Werner Herzog—also draws on childhood memories of the final period of the Cold War in Germany, the country once seen as the nuclear battleground for NATO and the Warsaw Pact countries, and discusses evidence that Nazi scientists knew how to make atomic weaponry . . . and chose not to.
Story of David Bradbury’s nuclear/uranium journey on film
A first wave of David Bradbury’s critically acclaimed filmography is now available for immediate streaming video on ScreenZone.tv:
http://www.screenzone.tv/products/jabiluka
http://www.screenzone.tv/products/hard-rain
http://www.screenzone.tv/products/public-enemy
http://www.screenzone.tv/products/blowin-in-the-wind
ON THE FRONTLINE: A ScreenZone interview with David Bradbury, 15 Jan 13 “……DB: My current film examines the three stages of the nuclear film cycle on a very personal level. It started when I met an aboriginal woman called Isabelle Dingamah (sic) about four years ago, and I started to film her story. She is one of the traditional custodians of the land at Roxby [Downs]. As a little girl she’d had the British atom bomb dropped on her and her family when she was 18-months-old. It’s kind of Shakespearian.
It’s unfolded organically, which is how I make my documentaries, and filmed as I go. Continue reading
Inspirational New Book – “Loving This Planet”
Together with some of the most brilliant thinkers and inspiring advocates of our time, including Maude Barlow, Bill McKibben, Daniel Ellsberg, Lily Tomlin, and many others, Caldicott—whom Meryl Streep has called “my inspiration to speak out”—scrutinizes our unsustainable dependence on nuclear energy and the absurdity of nuclear arms and seeks to raise awareness about other planetary issues, including deforestation, sea-level rise, and privatization of water reserves.
Loving This Planet Leading Thinkers Talk About How to Make a Better World HELEN CALDICOTT paperback $17.95
PAPERBACK ORIGINAL MORE THAN TWO DOZEN INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED ADVOCATES DISCUSS THE STATE OF THE PLANET IN CANDID CONVERSATIONS WITH LEADING ANTINUCLEAR ACTIVIST DR. HELEN CALDICOTT
God bless Helen Caldicott. —LOS ANGELES TIMES Ever since quitting her job as a pediatrician at Harvard Medical School in 1980, Helen Caldicott has worke d tirelessly for a safe, sustainable, nuclear-free planet, most recently by hosting a weekly radio show featuring environmentalists and leading activists from around the globe.
Together with some of the most brilliant thinkers and inspiring advocates of our time, including Maude Barlow, Bill McKibben, and many others, Caldicott—whom Meryl Streep has called “my inspiration to speak out”—scrutinizes our unsustainable dependence on nuclear energy and the absurdity of nuclear arms and seeks to raise awareness about other planetary issues, including deforestation, sea-level rise, and privatization of water reserves.
In these stirring conversations, we hear from Martin Sheen on the power of grassroots movements and the ability of unionized labor to influence politicians; Jonathan Schell, bestselling author and contributing editor to The Nation and Harper’s Magazine, on key environmental and economic fallacies; and award-winning nuclear engineer Arjun Makhijani on transitioning to a society based completely on renewable energy, omitting the need for fossil fuels or nuclear power. Continue reading
Australian aboriginals’ complex system of conserving land, water, and biodiversity
Bill gives meaning to ‘Wagga’, The Daily Advertiser, 04 Apr, 2012 ,A WAGGA-educated academic historian returned to town at the weekend giving residents a new insight into the ‘Wagga Wagga’ name. Professor Bill Gammage from the Australian National University was invited to speak by the Wagga and District Historical Society about his latest publication telling those in attendance ‘Wagga’ means more than just ‘place of many crows’.
His book, The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines Made Australia, explores the discovery that Aboriginal people managed the land in far more systematic and scientific ways than ever before realised using a complex system of land management in fire and life cycles of native plants to ensure plentiful wildlife and plant foods throughout the year.
“It argues that Aborigines organised plants and distributed them in a way that would allow them to organise animals,” Mr Gammage said. “So when you take the name Wagga, which means place of many crows, it would actually be describing the landscape so they would know what it looked like,” Mr Gammage said. “They knew it meant there were plenty of crows, which meant there were lizards, snakes and grasslands which led to tubas and bulbs and a lot of open grass country.”…. . http://www.dailyadvertiser.com.au/news/local/news/general/bill-gives-meaning-to-wagga/2510896.aspx
Australian mining companies’ dirty history at home and overseas
Book Review, by Antony Loewenstein, The Sunday Age magazine, 1 April 12, Dirty Money, by Matthew Benns, “…. Benns documents a litany of dirty deals, grubby environmnetal catastrophes and health scares. Tghe only conclusion from this essential bookis that Australia has a bipartisan belief in giving the resource industry whatever it wants and screwing the long term expense”
Country, culture, and the resources boom
Gladys Milroy protecting country and culture through storytelling, ABC North West W.A. By Elise Batchelor, 9 March, 2012 Between the lines of this children’s book is a much bigger story about culture and country…… there’s a quiet achiever writing a powerful tale tackling big issues. The mining resources boom in northern Western Australia is such an issue. And Aboriginal elder Gladys Milroy, along with daughter Professor Jill Milroy, has written a story on the subject to charm and challenge children and adults alike….
the tale told of the relationship between these outback animals and dingo’s tree holds a far deeper wisdom. For it’s mining
which has plundered the landscape, destroying the balance between development and the natural environment. In reading the story, it’s therefore perhaps useful to remove one’s hard hat and wonder – how far is too far with the resources boom?…
…”Dingo’s Tree” is published by Magabala Books. Gladys and daughter Jill Milroy, Dean of Indigenous Studies at the University of Western Australia, co-authored this tale born of manyvisits to their country out Nullagine, Marble Bar way.
http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2012/03/09/3450113.htm?site=northwestwa
Australia leading in renewable energy research
VIDEO 7.30 – ABC Aussie scientists lead race for renewable fuel 7.30 – ABC , 14 April 11, LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: With the price of fuel hitting $1.50 a litre, there’s a growing push to develop renewable alternatives. Scientists in Australia are part of the global race to develop new biofuels. In fact researchers here claim to be leading the world with a project turning waste into oil. But investment in such technologies is slow while industries wait for further detail on the proposed carbon tax. Continue reading
Dr Helen Caldicott refutes George Monbiot on nuclear radiation
If you inhale a millionth of a gram of plutonium, the surrounding cells receive a very, very high dose. Most die within that area, because it’s an alpha emitter. The cells on the periphery remain viable. They mutate, and the regulatory genes are damaged. Years later, that person develops cancer…..It’s imperative that people understand that internal emitters cause cancer, but the incubation time for cancer is any time from two to 60 years. …
VIDEO Nuclear industry propaganda about low-level radiation is “absolute rubbish” says physician who taught at Harvard Med School — It’s all about internal emitters (VIDEO) « Energy News Energy News, HELEN CALDICOTT 4 April 11, : … Up to 
a million people have already died from Chernobyl, and people will continue to die from cancer for virtually the rest of time. What we should know is that a millionth of a gram of plutonium, or less, can induce cancer, or will induce cancer. Continue reading
“Our Generation” – film shows NT intervention as land grab for uranium mining
What lay behind the government’s action? “We believe that this government is using child sexual abuse as the Trojan horse to resume total control of our lands,” argues Pat Turner of the National Indigenous Television station.
Saban goes on to note that Australia holds vast mineral resources, including 40 per cent of the world’s uranium, and that mining is the Northern Territory’s largest industry.
Our Generation, Morning Star (UK) Directed by Sinem Saban 01 February 2011, by Ian Sinclair “………..The documentary’s central focus is the Canberra government’s controversial “intervention” in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory in 2007. Continue reading
Aboriginal artists put spotlight on Northern Territory Intervention
iNTervention Intervention
Curated by Teena McCarthy and Brendan Penzer
The Vanishing Point gallery
565 King Street, Newtown, Sydney
January 13-30
Artists challenge NT intervention whitewashing | Green Left Weekly, January 25, 2011 By Lauren Carrol Harris, Sydney “……..iNTervention Intervention, an art exhibition featuring the response by artists to the ongoing Northern Territory intervention into Aboriginal communities, brings the spotlight back on a crucial but rarely discussed political issue. Continue reading
Film faces the question of storing radioactive waste for thousands of years
The new film is a startlingly beautiful and mind-bending provocation that asks the questions, “how can we possibly store nuclear waste safely for 100,000 years, and how will we explain to future generations not to open the storage facilities.”
Scientists and the ethics of uranium and nuclear weapons
Considering Australia, he argues, is a country with abundant uranium reserves, our scientists should refrain from activities that have the potential to indirectly aid the production of nuclear weapons
The Responsible Sci
entist: A Philosophical Inquiry, Eureka: Ethics Research, Australian Museum, December 2010, WINNER – The Responsible Scientist Setting a Moral Compass for Scientists As atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the final stages of World War II in 1945, the world witnessed the devastation that science could inflict on humankind.Since that moment, countries around the world have been called to account on their nuclear weapons programs. But what responsibility rests on the shoulders of the scientists who make such grand-scale destruction possible? Continue reading
New DVD from Germany, about Olympic Dam uranium mine
The DVD specializes in the truth of BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam (Roxby) uranium mine in northern South Australia–the world’s greatest uranium deposit.
The Reality About The Largest Uranium Mine in Australia, Bukisa, Oct 25th, 2010 by scotmxncmoe Continue reading
Australia’s economy needs new renewable energy industries, not fossil fuel ones
Relying on our fossil fuels for energy and future wealth is no longer a sensible option…Despite the claims of the fossil-fuel lobby, renewable energy can provide a vital new industry and energy source to power Australia’s economy day and night
Where’s the vision that will take us to a brave new world?, The Canberra Times, BY FIONA ARMSTRONG20 Aug, 2010 Call me fussy, but I have always expected leaders to provide leadership……while we’ve seen plenty of special interests in this election campaign, we haven’t seen much that captures what might be best for all of us…. Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 