Kathy Newnam, Darwin
On November 3, 100 people attended the Darwin premiere of Australian Atomic Confessions, a 48-minute film documenting the legacy of the 12 British nuclear-bomb tests carried out in Australia in the 1950s.
Greg Young, the film's director and co-writer, introduced the documentary, explaining that it documents ordinary Australians' "unwilling participation in the nuclear industry". Included in the film are interviews with former Australian army personnel who were exposed to radiation at the test sites and their campaign for compensation.
The film features interviews with Aboriginal people who were affected by the nuclear-bomb tests, including the women of the Kupa Piti Kungka Juta — the Aboriginal women's council in Coober Pedy — who also talk about their recent battle against the federal government's attempt to build a radioactive waste dump on their land.
In 2004, their eight-year-long campaign against this dump was successful. Their momentous struggle is now documented in a 120-page, full-colour book, Talking Straight Out: Stories From the Irati Wanti Campaign, published last month.
The book had its Darwin launch at the premiere of Australian Atomic Confessions.
Event organiser Justin Tutty from the Darwin No Radioactive Waste Alliance told the audience that the book was "a user manual for those who will have to carry on the fight here in the Norther Territory". In a message of support to anti-nuclear campaigners, the Kungka Juta wrote: "This is a big story. You don't have to start at the beginning; we've already done a lot of work ... We have to work together. Tell everyone they can do it — you can do it."
Benedict Stevens, a senior custodian of the land around Mount Evarard (one of the three proposed nuclear waste dump sites in the NT), also addressed the gathering, expressing the growing determination of anti-nuclear campaigners to "stick together and say no to this nuclear waste dump".
In her welcome to country, Larrakia elder June Mills spoke of the foreign law imposed on this country since the late 19th century British invasion — "a foreign law that keeps changing to suit the people in power".
On October 2, the federal parliament passed legislation to override the NT parliament's opposition to the dump. Anti-dump campaigners have held regular vigils outside NT Senator Nigel Scullion's office, calling for him to vote against the legislation in the Senate.
[The next meeting of the No Radioactive Waste Alliance will be on November 15. For more information, phone (08) 8948 3339 or email <darwin@no-waste.org>.]
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, November 9, 2005.
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