Here are some quotes from interviews and speeches from NT Traditional owners over the last few weeks on the intervention/invasion. Audio Recordings of these and other speeches or available at online at www.asen.org.au, or you can obtain them by contacting holly@asen.org.au. Two of the audio files can be found below
Thanks to Holly for putting all this together, and Anne for sharing it with me. It is greatly appreciated.
See here for what you can do to support the Indigenous People and to help make sure this intervention is not legislated. The Senate is voting tomorrow
Voices of Resistance - Northern Territory Traditional Owners Speaking Out
I arrived in the country of Mutitjulu Traditional Owners a day before the military arrived. Days later, as a white person in Alice Springs, you could blink and miss the invasion by military, territory and federal cops, bureaucrats, and media happening in scores …
Over the past year, Frontenac Ventures Corporation (and Mining Resource Engineering Limited MREL) has been appropriating Algonquin traditional lands near Ardoch, Ontario. According to a statement from the Algonquins of Ardoch lake, the plan is to develop the 60km to extract uranium from the land. As you may know, there’s currently a bit of uranium fever going around.
The land however has been appropriated without the authority of Ardoch Algonquin First Nation. Further, they were not at all consulted with respect to this plan to mine the land, and have not given permission for activities being currently engaged on this land.
In response to this, and after the concerning discoveries made while recently inspecting the land (see above link), Yesterday the Algonquins of Sharbot and Ardoch Lakes blocked Highway 7 (42 miles north of Kingston)
The Algonquins have since been warned …
Indigenous traditional owners and community members from areas the Government has proposed for new Nuclear Waste dump sites, have recently begun a National speaking tour to express their concerns over how these dump sites would cause irreversible damage to the land. Aswell, toinform people that the areas—which the government has assured are “some distance from any form of civilisation”—are in fact not uninhabited.
From the Canberra event poster:
1. Mt Evard - 40kms NW of Alice Springs.
3 km from the proposed dump site WerreTherre community runs several business enterprises, including mustering wild horses and conducting cultural education on country for school children. Arrente Traditional Owners Audrey McCormack and Benedict Stevens will travel on this Speaking Tour. “I’d like to keep the place clean for my children my grandchildren and further generations.. we go out hunting there, we go for our bush …
In the last couple generations, the neoliberal economic model—along with the very handy belief system it contains—has been bleeding into the lives and ways of Indigenous People in North America. Of course we see it happening in many places around the world, but nothing compared to the frequency and extent it is happening on this land; specifically among those who lead/govern/manage the people.
In many cases there is an immeasurable cost attached to doing business like this. Sometimes, a Tribal Council will alienate and banish people from the Nation; other times, they’ll sell a Nation’s Sovereignty on the first incoming bid…. And on occasion, the cost of doing business will translate into no less then an act of genocide.
On Navajo land for example, the loss of Womanhood has become an exchange for doing business, because in part of the …
From Canada Press - Miners are stunned and environmentalists cheering over a northern regulator’s recommendation that a uranium exploration project be denied because it threatens the spiritual and cultural well-being of the area’s Dene people.
The Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board says Ur-Energy’s (TSX:URE) plan to drill up to 20 holes near the Thelon River should not proceed under any circumstances. Read the report (pdf)
“Although the proposed development is physically small, the potential cultural impacts are not,” says the board in a written decision.
It is only the second time in the board’s history that it has dismissed a project outright.
It’s now up to federal Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice to decide whether to accept the recommendation, which throws doubt on the future of hundreds of mineral leases and claims in a vast area of the Northwest Territories. (Read the full story)
Also see: Ur-Energy Delayed in Exploration …
By focusing on the Native American struggle for spiritual and cultural autonomy on disputed lands in the U.S. Southwest, “Trespassing” unpacks a deadly political and ethical controversy around land rights, uranium mining, nuclear testing and the disposal of nuclear waste, and examines the ability of a culture to bring itself to the brink of annihilation while simultaneously producing “gatekeepers” to combat that annihilation.
Review of the film, by Brenda Norell
May 10, 2006 - ”Trespassing,” censored in more film festivals worldwide than it has been shown, reveals how the Colorado River Indian Tribes, Fort Mojave, Western Shoshone, Pueblo and Navajo were targeted by the nuclear industry.
Stewart Udall, former Interior Department secretary under presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, appears in the film and calls for honesty from the United States regarding the mistakes of the Cold War and Atomic Age. Udall points out that Americans were told to trust those in power …
Buffalo River Dene Nation
International Press Release
February 15
One Last Move Before Genocide : Buffalo River Dene Nation Take Action Against the Canadian Government
“All our efforts at a peaceful solution have been denied and brushed aside by the government of Canada. Our long struggle has always been about the very survival of our land and our people”, said Buffalo River Dene Nation (BRDN) spokesman Adelard Blackman. “Unabated resource development is killing the land, our water, and our people. We’ve asked for a moratorium and discussions to address the issues. Silence and inaction have been the response. We have no where to turn, but to the international arena and plead for help and support from other nations and nation-states. This is our last move as the tide of genocide turns against our people. When our land is no more then we are no more.”
Buffalo River Dene Nation (BRDN) have pursued …
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