Respected First Nations activist Reverend Ray Minniecon is a descendant of the Kabi Kabi nation and the Gurang Gurang nation of South-East Queensland. Minniecon is also a descendant of the South Sea Islander people, with connections to the people of Ambrym Island. He is a reverend in the Aboriginal Evangelical Fellowship.
In his speech at the Sydney Hiroshima Day rally on August 6, he called for the people of Maralinga to be remembered alongside the victims of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
"They too, and their lands, continue to suffer from that bombing in my life time," he said.
"Our leaders have not yet learned the lesson and cannot help us find peace in our world. And so it is left up to us. We, the people, need to bring peace to the world."