Sixty people gathered at City Farm, East Perth, for an update on the opening up of WA to uranium mining and the growing campaign to stop it.
The night was hosted by the newly-formed WA Nuclear Free Alliance (WANFA), which groups together about 60 Aboriginal people from communities around the state.
Greens Senator Scott Ludlam described the support for uranium mining by the state government and federal resources minister Martin Ferguson , He pointed out that the same forces were arrayed against those who won protection of the Koongarra, halted the Angela-Pamela mine and stopped the Jabiluka mine. He paid tribute to the leadership of traditional owners.
Indigenous woman Della Rae Morrison from WANFA described the impact of uranium mining and nuclear testing on Aboriginal people in South Australia — the cancers, the thyroid disease and reproductive problems for which no-one has been held accountable.
Other speakers included veteran anti-uranium campaigner Jo Vallentine and Geoffrey Stokes, an Aboriginal man from Kalgoorlie who said: “It’s our country. The Liberal Party think it’s theirs. The mining companies think it’s theirs.”