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World award for elders fighting nuclear dump

By Political Reporter Catherine Hockley

15 April 2003 - Two South Australian Aboriginal elders have won a prestigious international prize for their campaign against a proposed radioactive waste dump.

Eileen Kampakuta Brown and Eileen Wani Wingfield will today be presented with the $US125,000 ($A207,097) 2003 Goldman Environmental Prize dubbed the Nobel Prize for the environment.

The Aboriginal elders, both aged in their 70s, were recognised for their active opposition to the national waste dump, which will be located at one of three sites near Woomera in the state's north.

Founder of the prize, US philanthropist Richard N. Goldman, said the winners worked "to inspire their communities to fight for environmental protection".

"In the current political climate, it is more important than ever to recognise people who are working to protect the health of their water, air and community resources," he said.

The women are survivors of the 1950s Maralinga atomic tests which devastated their traditional lands and decimated their communities.

"All the old people died and people had sores everywhere, stomach trouble and everything," said Mrs Wingfield, who lives at Port Augusta.

"A lot of people got sick and a lot of people died and this poison, they're still mucking about with it."

The women were spurred to action in 1995, forming the Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta, a collective of Aboriginal women opposed to any attempt to bury the nation's radioactive waste in traditional lands.

Mrs Brown, who came from Coober Pedy to Adelaide last week to receive an Order of Australia, said the Goldman Prize strengthened her resolve to fight the dump. "This award makes me feel strong," she said. "Even though I am getting old I will keep going, still talking strong against the Irati – poison."

Only four Australians have previously won the Goldman Prize, including Greens Senator Bob Brown.

Mrs Wingfield is in San Francisco to receive her prize today and Mrs Brown is in Sydney, where singer Christine Anu will present the award. The Goldman prize is presented annually to six "environmental heroes" – one from each of the six continental regions.

Source: The Advertiser

related links :

• The Goldman Prize
• Aborigines outraged but miners say yes, put it in our backyard
  29 April 2003 - The Guardian (UK) - The Australian government is completing its examination of two outback sites, 25 miles apart, for its first nuclear waste repository. The news, released this week, has dismayed politicians, environmentalists and Aboriginal groups.
• Nuclear dump plan leaked
  13 November 2002 - The federal government's plan to build a national nuclear dump in South Australia has hit another hurdle with the leaking of a document outlining plans for a $300,000 propaganda campaign in the coming months.
• Australian Broadcasting Corporation - Background Briefing
  Maralinga: The Fall Out Continues - April 2000 - Information and further links.
  
• Maraling Our Shame
  Timeline and Photos
  
• National Archives of Australia - Fact Sheet on British nuclear tests at Maralinga
  Between 1952 and 1963 the British government, with the agreement and support of Australia, carried out nuclear tests at three sites in Australia – the Monte Bello Islands off the coast of Western Australian and at Emu Field and Maralinga in South Australia.
  
• Maralinga: govt covers-up nuclear contamination
  “What was done at Maralinga was a cheap and nasty solution that wouldn't be adopted on white-fellas land.” August 2002.
• Jim Green Nuclear and Environmental Research
  Various links to articles and background on the cleanup of Maralinga.
• Questions asked in United Kingdom Parliament
  2 December 2002 : Column 483W : Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what quantities of plutonium, arising from British experiments at Maralinga in South Australia, remain buried in the desert; what environmental monitoring is conducted of these sites; and what representations have been received from Aborigines who live in the area in respect of the impact on their land. [84268]
  Dr. Moonie: The final report of the Maralinga Rehabilitation Technical Advisory Committee is expected to be published early next year. Estimates of the quantity of plutonium left at Maralinga will be in the report. The Maralinga Consultative Group is currently preparing a long-term management plan for the area, which includes routine radiation monitoring and surveillance. The Maralinga Tjarutja traditional owners are represented on a consultative committee with the Commonwealth of Australia and South Australian governments. This has met throughout the project and serves as a forum in which to discuss and monitor the work being carried out.

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