Aunty Sue Coleman-Haseldine, a senior Googatha elder and anti-nuclear activist, is leading a campaign against rocket and weapons testing on sacred Googatha Country.
With the support of West Mallee Protection group, Coleman-Haseldine issued a formal no consent to the militarisation of Googatha Country in July last year. It was addressed to Southern Launch and hand delivered to global weapons’ manufacturers working with the company.
Southern Launch is an Australian aerospace company, which established the Koonibba Test Range on a 41,000 square kilometre area of Googatha Country.
Rockets, hypersonics, drones and “long duration air vehicles’ are tested on the range. Southern Launch claims that the Koonibba Test Range is on “uninhabited land” but this is not true: Googatha people are on the land, continuing their culture.
Markela Panegyres spoke to Coleman-Haseldine, a Maralingar nuclear test survivor, about the campaign.
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The federal Labor government continues to fund and approve rocket and weapons testing without the free, prior and informed consent of First Peoples. How is the No Consent campaign going?
We always have to fight. We took the campaign from Ceduna to Tarndanya/Adelaide and the world last year. I would like to take the campaign to Canberra and Naarm/Melbourne, to get the word out more. By protesting, I’m upholding my Law.
What is your experience of rocket testing on Googatha Country?
I was put in danger. I was out on Country when Southern Launch did a rocket launch. We only found out when a helicopter swooped close overhead. I got scared and left the camp.
I’m very concerned about the health and safety of animals when there is a rocket launch/testing. What is the fallout? What kind of pollution? What is being tested? Habitat is being desecrated. The abundant wildlife in Googatha is at risk — cockatoos, lizards, snakes and birds.
I regularly go on to Country to engage in the Traditional practice of rock-hole cleaning. Four generations of my family, plus volunteers help me. In Traditional times, the old people would hang around the water holes and kept them clean — for example by removing animals that fell into them. The “keepers” would keep the water hole healthy: I’m continuing this tradition.
Lately, I have noticed that the birds are not around … there used to be heaps of birds in the area … there are also fewer dingoes and other animals.
When I’m on Country I continue the tradition of teaching our Dreaming stories to younger generations. The Seven Sisters Dreaming is very important to Googatha people; it contains very strong, good teachings, including not to hurt other people, the land or animals.
Which weapons companies and/or militaries are undergoing testing on Country?
The Australian Defence Force, Thales, Australian Space Agency, Varda, HyImpulse, Reaction Dynamics, German Aerospace Centre, AtSpace, and Perigee. I don’t know if AUKUS-specific operations are happening but they very likely could be. There is a lot of secrecy.
I’m even concerned that nuclear is being used. I don’t trust these companies … the Southern Launch range keeps extending and will now join up with the Woomera range for example.
The 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Article 29 says that indigenous people must have “Free, Prior and Informed Consent” over storage of hazardous materials on their lands. Have Aboriginal communities in South Australia been consulted or informed?
No, the government and the weapons companies ignore Country and culture. Southern Launch has been able to bribe and convince one group of Aboriginal people living in Koonibba that weapons testing is okay. This has caused divisions between Aboriginal communities.
Native Title has proved useless to stop the government and the weapons’ companies. I don’t believe in Native Title because it only gives you the right to negotiate, not to say “No”. Native Title pits family against family.
I won’t take government money or bribes from companies, because they will take our land and expect to be given information about special locations, cultural knowledge and art in return. Companies like Southern Launch are not listening to Aboriginal people: it destroys land, people and destroys spirit.
I’m sick of weapons companies and the government looking at Australia like “no-one is living there”.
Land in remote areas is not uninhabited — we are always out on Country, even white people and other non-Aboriginal people are sometimes out on Country travelling for tourism.
Weapons companies put tourists visiting Country in danger, too. Weapons and military testing harms animals, plants, and the entire ecosystem. Animals have a right to live, but their territories are getting polluted, and many animals such as Dingoes are suffering.
You are the president of the Australian Nuclear Free Alliance (ANFA). What are its aims?
ANFA’s overarching aim is a nuclear free world — a safe world for the next generations. It brings together Aboriginal people from all around who are trying to stop uranium mining and nuclear waste dumps. ANFA is also anti-AUKUS.
If Aboriginal groups from other Countries have rallies, I will go and support. We have had some wins, like at Kimba.
You are a nuclear test survivor. How can we prevent more harm being done to you and your Country?
I survived Maralinga, which is a couple of hundred kilometres from Koonibba, where I was born.
I was born in 1951 and they started testing in 1952. My community saw what they thought was a dust storm, but the dust was black. It got into everything and was poisonous.
The fall-out affected everyone. I have had to have my thyroid removed, and two of my granddaughters have also had their thyroids removed. Cancers caused by the nuclear testing are still dominating our genes — the suffering doesn’t stop. It has affected everyone: Ceduna is the cancer capital of Australia.
Meanwhile, the land will be contaminated for at least 100,000 years. Plutonium testing was, and is also done, but more secretively. Aboriginal communities are not allowed back to their lands, because it is so contaminated. However, some groups, like the Oak Valley people wanted to go home, and did. As Aboriginal people, we want to go home, we want to “go bush”.
The main lesson we should learn is “Don’t test nuclear”. Don’t do it.
Everything was contaminated after Maralinga. Everybody suffered, not just Aboriginal people. That’s why I say that the nuclear issue is everybody’s business. With nuclear testing, what is gained? Nothing but devastation. We must leave uranium in the ground, dismantle what you’ve got, don’t test, don’t mine.
What would it take for Australia to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW)?
It would be a big step if we joined the TPNW. I believe there’s a greater agenda here of not signing because we are trying to placate the United States — but America won’t look after us.
Defence minister Richard Marles recently announced a plan to lift defence spending by $53 billion over the next decade. What do you think about such a huge investment in war fighting capacity?
The government is throwing away a massive amount of money. This money could be used for people, medical care and housing.
But the work continues to protect Country and Culture regardless. I stand side by side everybody fighting against weapons testing and nuclear. We must remember that the future belongs to the next generations, and we are just here to look after it for them.
[The Googatha Nation covers a large area in the west of South Australia, north of Ceduna. Aunty Sue Coleman-Haseldine will be speaking at Ecosocialism 2026, September 11-13, Albion Peace Centre, Magan-djin/Brisbane.]