Fears of a nuclear wasteland: First Nations leaders

This article was first published in The Melbourne Anglican on 10 April 2025.

Proposals to increase nuclear investment have fuelled fears of increased radiation poisoning, food and soil contamination, and people displacement among First Nations faith and community leaders.

Indigenous communities still live with the harmful effects of British nuclear testing in Emu Field and Maralinga in the 1950s and 1960s, including increased cancer, auto-immune disease and respiratory illness.

The McClelland Royal Commission into British nuclear tests in Australia (1984–1985) found safeguards against radiation exposure were inadequate.

The Commission was told First Nations people walked barefoot across contaminated ground and the “black mist” radiation cloud was three times bigger than predicted.

Aboriginal Christian Leader Brooke Prentis said the Aboriginal people were never told about the testing and were simply managing and walking across their land when it occurred.

“[They] ended up with radiation sickness,” she said.

Yankunytjatjara Native Title Aboriginal Corporation chairperson Karina Lester said her community lived under the fear of the catastrophic nuclear industry.

Ms Lester’s father was anti-nuclear activist Yami Lester who was blinded by the Totem One tests in Emu Field.

She said there had been little consultation with traditional owners.

Ms Lester said communities near nuclear zones had excessive rates of thyroid cancer, respiratory illness and auto-immune disease and traditional food sources were unsafe because of animals crossing over contaminated land.

“In South Australia we’ve got that dark history,” she said.

That history goes beyond nuclear testing. Professor Mick Dodson led a discussion paper into uranium mining in Kakadu in 2006.

The Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies discussion paper to the Uranium Mining, Processing and Nuclear Energy Review Taskforce raised urgent health issues.

These included a significant increase in cancer rates 90 per cent greater than expected for people living adjacent to uranium mining and milling operations.

But the federal government stated there were no sound reasons to prevent uranium mining in Australia less than three weeks after the AIATSIS paper was published.

Geoscience Australia’s energy commodity resources report for 2024 noted Australia was now the fourth largest uranium exporter globally.

Between 2021 and 2022 uranium production was up 20 per cent and export income increased by 60 per cent.

First Nations climate activist Murrawah Maroochy Johnson believes Australia’s current investment in the nuclear economy creates fears of a nuclear wasteland.

“Whether it’s supply, whether it’s waste management and storage, whether it’s actual nuclear energy in terms of power plants, I think even entertaining the idea is dangerous,” Ms Johnson said.

“It doesn’t have to be the story of Maralinga,” she said. “We can’t ignore that there are already affected Aboriginal communities that have ongoing impacts [because] of nuclear testing.”

Ms Johnson was concerned because more frequent, unpredictable and higher intensity adverse weather events added risk to nuclear stability.

“With climate change happening, we’re already seeing it with the rising sea levels affecting nuclear waste storage in the Pacific,” she said.

National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Anglican Council executive Aunty Dr Rose Elu said the nation could not wait for a solution and nuclear would take too long.

“We need to reduce emissions today,” she said. “Waiting for nuclear means more money in carbon gas…creating millions of pounds of carbon dioxide, destroying our climate even more.”

Dr Elu said the situation for Torres Strait Islanders was already distressing without worrying about the dangers of nuclear, with increasing extreme weather events and environmental health risks.

“This is God-given land to us,” she said. “This is our home island. This is our umbilical cord. This is our heritage. This is our identity. This is where we belong.”

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