The Alliance Against Uranium, a network of Aboriginal and environmental organisations which was formed in 1997, declared after a September 2005 meeting in Quorn, South Australia, that current and future generations have a right to a clean environment. Further, it said that Indigenous people have right to “clean water and safe bush tucker, a strong culture and healthy communities and protection for their sacred lands and burial grounds”.
Attendees from the Adnyamathanha, Kokatha Moola, Warlpiri, Anmatyere, Kungarakun and Gurindji nations took part, as well as representatives from Friends of the Earth, the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Medical Association for the Prevention of War, the Mineral Policy Institute, the Campaign Against Nuclear Dumping (SA), the Australian Student Environment Network and the Anti-Nuclear Alliance of Western Australia.
The alliance called on the federal government to “stop forcing nuclear projects on unwilling communities” and affirmed that “consultation and informed group consent is an essential precondition to the consideration of nuclear projects”. Participants also committed themselves to share information, and to build the links to reduce nuclear risks to people and country.
From Green Left Weekly, July 5, 2006.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.
