Please note: All video has been posted on this site with permission from the featured speakers. Please contact natwasley (at) alec.org.au if you wish to publish or screen these clips.
“Muckaty Voices” is a short film capturing community resistance to an Australian government plan to dump radioactive waste at Muckaty Station, 120 kilometres north of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory.
The area is being assessed by the federal government for a low and long-lived intermediate level radioactive waste facility, despite sustained opposition from Aboriginal Traditional Owners, pastoralists and the NT government and community.
Muckaty was nominated in 2007 as a possible dump site by the Northern Land Council and a small group of Traditional Owners hoping for a combination of cash and improved services like roads, housing and education. Many other Traditional Owners remain opposed to the plan and have been highly critical of the process and approach taken by Resource Minister Martin Ferguson.
The governments push for Muckaty has sparked widespread criticism from trade unions, national health and environment groups and Indigenous groups, including the Central Land Council.
In Opposition the Labor party described the former Howard governments waste dump laws as ‘draconian’, ‘sordid’ and ‘arrogant’ however in government Labor have borrowed heavily from the Howard legislation.
Labors repackaged dump laws are in clear conflict with their policies and 2007 election promises on radioactive waste management. They suspend key Aboriginal heritage and environmental protections and override any Commonwealth, State or Territory laws that could delay or frustrate the dump. To add insult to radioactive injury the Muckaty nomination is not subject to procedural fairness or judicial review.
Traditional Owner and dump critic Dianne Stokes told a Senate Inquiry in April 2010, “We made the video throughout the Warlmanpa land. It is all of the Milwayi story. We wanted to show this DVD to the public and the people here in this Senate Inquiry because of the place where the proposed dump site area is going to be sited… Along with that, we have some songs and dances to represent the country”.
The film was produced for the Muckaty Traditional Owners by Enlightning Productions, with the support of the Beyond Nuclear Initiative.
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MUCKATY by Kylie Sambo
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Many Muckaty Traditional Owners are opposed to establishment a radioactive waste dump on the Muckaty Land Trust, 120km north of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory.
This is a short video appeal to Senators calling on them to oppose Minister Ferguson’s National Radioactive Waste Management Bill, which would entrench Muckaty as the only site to be actively considered for the dump.The Bill is expected before the Senate again in mid August.
Help bury the NT dump – contact your Senate representatives and tell them you want them to vote against the Muckaty dump plan…
Keep the poison out of Muckaty
Kurlalu yarnmi Majju Majju Manu Wangku ka
Wangangka yama nyirrinjji mana Manu Wangku Kuna
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Mark Lane, March 2011 from jessie boylan on Vimeo.
Thanks for sharing this great clip Jessie.
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Dec 3, 2011 “Hot Politics:Radioactive Waste Management in Australia – ALP National conference fringe event
Introduction by Jeff McMullen
Matthew Gardiner, United Voice NT Secretary
Dianne Stokes, Muckaty Traditional Owner
George Newhouse, Special Counsel, Shine Lawyers Social Justice Practice
Dave Sweeney, Australian Conservation Foundation
DIANNE STOKES AND KYLIE SAMBO AT ALP NATIONAL CONFERENCE DECEMBER 2, 2011
DARWIN ‘NO DUMP’ RALLY MAY 11, 2011
STOP AUSTRALIAN URANIUM FUELLING THE NEXT NUCLEAR CRISIS
Tuesday April 26 marks the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster where deadly radiation spewed across Europe, damaging and destroying lives, landscapes and hopes.
Australian uranium fuels the dirty and dangerous nuclear industry. On a day when everything works to plan this becomes high level radioactive waste – on a day when things go wrong it becomes fallout. On the anniversary of Chernobyl and in the shadow of Fukushima it is time to halt the uranium trade.
Please join us in sending a clear message to Prime Minister Julia Gillard to keep our uranium in the ground: our energy future is renewable not radioactive.
Send your message here: http://www.pm.gov.au/contact-your-pm
Australia’s nuclear waste dump row
AlJazeeraEnglish — June 14, 2010 — Australia’s government is pushing its plans for a nuclear waste dump in a remote part of the country’s Northern Territory.
It has signed an agreement with the traditional owners of the land who will receive $10m in compensation, most of it in cash.
But the proposed nuclear dump has divided local people while and environmentalists warn it could one day be used to store waste from overseas.
Al Jazeera’s Azhar Sukri reports. (June 15, 2010)
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April 30, 2010
Nuclear Waste Dump – Muckaty Update
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From Muckaty to Melbourne: Public Meeting April 21, 2010
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Communities, climate change and uranium exploration
“BEDS ARE BURNING” – PROTEST AGAINST PETER GARRETT – MELBOURNE 12 NOV 09
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“Muckaty” song performed by The Winanjjikari Band, Tennant Creek
For more info please contact Winanjjikari Music Project Officer Jeff McLaughlin: winanjjikari@barklyarts.com.au
www.winanjjikari.podomatic.com
52 Peko Road (PO BOX 259), Tennant Creek, NT, 0861
P/F: 08 8962 2799
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No exploration at Angela Pamela- or anywhere
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Families for a Nuclear Free Future in Mparntwe, Alice Springs
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Land rights not dump sites- break the nuclear chain!
The unedited speeches below are from a public meeting held in Sydney on April 21, 2009.
The meeting was timed to coincide with the (pro-industry) World Nuclear Fuel Cycle Conference also being held in Sydney.
Dianne Stokes- Muckaty Traditional Owner
Senator Scott Ludlam (Australian Greens)
Dave Sweeney-Australian Conservation Foundation
Genevieve Kelly-National Tertiary Education Union NSW Division Secretary
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Clips below are unedited speeches from a public meeting at the Illawarra Aboriginal Cultural Centre on Dharwal country (Wollongong) on April 22, 2009.
A couple of weeks prior to the meeting, a shipment of spent fuel rods from the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor had been transported in the dead of night through Wollongong to be taken out of Port Kembla in New South Wales.
Dianne Stokes, Mark Lane and Mark Chungaloo (Traditional Owners of the proposed federal radioactive waste dump site at Muckaty in the Northern Territory ) were keen to meet with other communities affected by the Lucas Heights facility- if an NT dump is built then these fuel rods are mooted to be dumped on their land.
Uncle Dootch Kennedy- Illawarra Aboriginal Land Council Chair
Fred Moore-lifetime union activist
Arthur Rorris-South Coast Labour Council Secretary
Garry Keane- MUA Illawarra Branch Secretary
Dianne Stokes- Muckaty Traditional Owner
Mark Chungaloo- Muckaty Traditional Owner
Mark Lane-Muckaty Traditional Owner
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Rally for a nuclear free Barkly. Tennant Creek,
Northern Territory, September 4, 2008.
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The short clip below is of Mitch speaking at the Capitol Climate Action in Washington DC on March 2, 2009.
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The film below is a snapshot of the Capitol Climate Action held on March 2, 2009 in Washington DC on Piscataway land. The resolution is lower because it was filmed on a digital stills camera- i didn’t want my video camera out in the snow!
Wow!!! What a beautiful speech…
What was it like there? x
wow this sent shivers down my spine…
second that tessa, beautiful speech.