The unsung heroes of the Maralinga tests

The story of Maralinga isn’t just about the nuclear testing in outback South Australia in the 1950s and 60s, or the traditional owners’ fight for land rights and compensation.

It’s also about how the people of Maralinga are still working to rehabilitate the land, which remains contaminated with low levels of plutonium.

This week, read an article by Andrew Collett that explains how the Maralinga people are shouldering this critical and never-ending responsibility – on behalf of all of us.

In this article he shares the words of one late community leader, whose response to the suggestion of removing hundreds of square kilometres of plutonium-contaminated topsoil, was: "I am not prepared to solve one environmental disaster by creating another."

That story, and Larissa Behrendt’s documentary, Maralinga Tjarutja, are among many you can read, hear and watch as part of the ABC’s coverage of Reconciliation Week.

Another important date has passed since my last newsletter, with Muslims celebrating Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan. (And like Reconciliation Week, it looks a bit different this year.)

For Zahra Fielding, it was her first time observing Ramadan – since she found faith, and friendship, through an online roleplaying game.

And Earshot have a new series starting this weekend.

It’s all about housing – a perennial issue in Australian politics, but one where the coronavirus pandemic has exposed many of the failings of our current system.

Until next time,
Rosie Ryan, digital editor
 

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