In 2005, the Australian government named three Department of Defence areas in the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia as potential sites for a first purpose built national nuclear waste storage facility. There was no consultation with the Traditional Owners of the land or the NT Government. Then Minister for Education, Science and Training Dr Brendan Nelson remarked, “Why on earth can’t people in the middle of nowhere have low-level and intermediate-level...
more »In 2005, the Australian government named three Department of Defence areas in the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia as potential sites for a first purpose built national nuclear waste storage facility. There was no consultation with the Traditional Owners of the land or the NT Government. Then Minister for Education, Science and Training Dr Brendan Nelson remarked, “Why on earth can’t people in the middle of nowhere have low-level and intermediate-level waste?” while his successor Minister Julie Bishop later described it as “far from any form of civilisation”. In 2007, the Northern Land Council contentiously nominated Muckaty (Manuwangku), 120km north of Tennant Creek, as another site to be assessed for nuclear waste storage. The compensation funding received if this site were selected would likely be tied to essential services and infrastructure such as education, housing and roads.
With the change of federal government, the Department of Defence sites were taken off the list leaving Muckaty as the only site under assessment. Called Manuwangku by Warlmanpa and Warumungu Traditional Owners, this place is far from ‘middle of nowhere’. They maintain a deep spiritual and cultural connection to the area. Supported by people across the NT and Australia, the community has engaged in protests and legal action in the Federal Court to defend their right to live in a clean and safe environment, free of hazardous waste.
At present, the majority of Australia’s long-lived intermediate radioactive waste (the highest level produced in Australia) is stored at the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor complex near Sydney. If the proposed storage plan goes ahead, 3,820 cubic metres of low-level radioactive waste growing at the rate of 35 cubic metres per annum and 435 cubic metres of long-lived intermediate level radioactive waste growing at the rate of 3.5 cubic metres per annum will be transported from Lucas Heights to the site nominated in Manuwangku (Muckaty). The pursuit of Manuwangku (Muckaty) as a potential nuclear waste storage site contravenes many articles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UN-DRIP).
Time and again, the traditional land, the way of life and culture of the Aboriginal communities have come under immense pressure. In this backdrop the activities of daily life of the Aboriginal owners of this land is a powerful reminder of their continuing co-existential relationship with the land.
It was a privilege to have the opportunity to live among the community and to be welcomed in to their public and private spaces and to be told of the more recent social history of the community. The photographic narrative ‘Manuwangku under the nuclear cloud’ is a portrayal of this community’s resilience in the face of an overwhelming conflict and an attempt to capture the determination of a people bound together through a common struggle to keep their traditional land free and safe.
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