Aboriginal Law Bulletin --- "Mar and Linga" [1986] AboriginalLawB 26; (1986) 1(19) Aboriginal Law Bulletin 13

• Mar And Linga

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Mar and Linga

The Story of Maralinga, Woomera and Monte Bello has been presented to the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva recently by Aboriginal .representatives from the National Aboriginal and Islander Legal Services Secretariat (NAILSS) and various New South Wales land councils.

Their representation came a month after the Federal Labor Government has dumped some recommendations of the McClelland Royal Commission "at the expense of Aborigines whose lands were contaminated by British atomic bomb tests in the 1950s and 1960s" (SMH, 29/1/86).

The Royal Commission found that huge tracts of Aboriginal territory remained dangerously contaminated. They are not safe for human occupation. It recommended that the areas be cleaned up to allow the traditional owners access. It was recommended that the cleanup of radioactive contamination at Maralinga and Emu in South Australia be supervised by a statutory body with Aboriginal representatives. However this has so far not been accepted by the Federal Cabinet.

Senator Gareth Evans, the Minister for Resources and Energy, has supposedly established two working bodies to firstly carry out detailed research on radioactive and toxic decontamination of the sites and the other to oversee the task of cleaning up. The Royal Commission's recommendation that an independent body called the Maralinga Commission, on which Aboriginal interests would be represented has been discounted.

Aboriginal communities have reacted strongly to this perceived lack of consultation and representation. The counsel for Aboriginal communities before the Royal Commission, Mr Andrew Collett, believes the government has chosen the "purely scientific and cost saving" course. The same attitude which brought about the contamination of large areas and, the deaths of Aboriginals and test workers.

The following extracts were given in speaking notes to the Commission on Human Rights:

"...clearly nothing, and certainly no 'handful of natives' was going to stand in the way of what (a member of the test team) saw as necessary preparations for the British Nuclear Tests."

Further on inn the report the "handful of natives" in that particular instance was indicated to be well over one hundred. Further the Commission is quoted:

'...overall the attempts to ensure Aboriginal safety during the tests demonstrate ignorance, incompetence and cynicism on the part of those responsible for that safety. The inescapable; conclusion is that if Aborigines were not' injured or killed as a result of the explosions, this was a matter of luck rather than adequate organisation management and resources allocated to ensuring safety."

This situation is familiar to indigenous peoples. Between 1947-58, sixty-six atomic and nuclear tests were held by the US in the Marshall Islands. The Islands of Enewetak Atoll are completely devastated, "there is no local economy and ninety per cent of their food is supplied by the US Department of Agriculture; and some islands like Runit Island have been declared off limits for 24,000 years. The Marshall Islands continue to be used as a strategic site with the largest missile range outside of the US". (Intervention 16, p1).

But as Henry Kissinger said in the early 1970s when speaking of Micronesia:

"90,000 people, who gives a damn."

The Aboriginal wish for representation on all responsible bodies associated with the cleanup of the affected areas is to counter the arrogant politics quoted above.