Earlier this year federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson introduced legislation to target Muckaty (120km north of Tennant Creek in the NT) for a federal radioactive waste dump site. This comes after years of uncertainty and divide and rule tactics imposed on Aboriginal communities by the racist policies of both the Rudd (now Gillard) and former Howard governments.

There is strong opposition to the dump from Ngapa and other Traditional Owners, whose land, culture, and sacred sites are threatened by this toxic legacy of a technology long-since proven dangerous and inadequate.

To see the full video ‘Muckaty Voices’ check out:
beyondnuclearinitiative.wordpress.com/video

Some quotes from Muckaty Traditional Owners featured in the film are below…

Marlene Bennett Nungarrayi: Once they put that thing there in the ground and they bury that, it stays there for hundreds, possibly thousands of years.  It get into the water systems, it starts poisoning country.  And that’s breaking down land, law, culture, your spirit, your songs, your dreaming.   It’d be wiped out.  It’d be nothing.

Kirsten Brown: We want to respect this land.  Please we need to fight this as one.

Mark Lane Jangala: Aboriginal people we got that land, that country in our hearts, in our minds and in our soul.  And the knowledge of it inside us, Aboriginal people have it up here all the time.

Michael Williams Jungarrayi: My name is Michael Williams Jungarrayi. We are the Milwayi group.  That’s my dreaming.  This is where the snake was travelling, Milwayi, and we don’t want that thing to be put there because it might ruin our sacred sites.  Too dangerous.  So we just say ‘no’ to that so we gonna keep it clean, you know, because my old grandfathers, they law keepers, you know.  They had strong culture, which today we still use.

Dianne Stokes Nampin: I’m not gonna stop, I’m gonna push to stop the waste dump along with my traditional elders. The land is very strong and it’s very important for my people.  I’ve got some Elders who know the country and every time I’ve said that, NLC always said that no other Traditional Owners to talk about the land, only Ngapa people. But we are the traditional owners of the land trust.

Mark Lane Jangala: And the stories behind it, you know.  There’s a story behind every sacred site. They can look at it now.  It’s a barren country, you know.  They look at there’s no people living there but they got to think about the outstations people living there and there’s sacred sites all along this boundary line.
There are some things in there that the white fellers don’t know about.  Like we say now, we’ve got our spiritual people here walking round, looking after land, but some white people don’t believe in that.