The Advertiser Dreamtime push for Maralinga An [sic] insult to the culture, says Aboriginal leader By Chief Political Reporter PHILLIP COOREY in Canberra 03may00 THE nuclear contamination of a vast tract of Maralinga land should be incorporated into Aboriginal Dreamtime so future indigenous generations never settled there, a scientist in charge of the clean-up suggested yesterday. Dr Geoff Williams, from the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency's environmental and radiation health branch, told a Senate estimates committee the poisoned 120sq km Taranaki test site would be uninhabitable for 24,000 years. Signposts placed in a 450sq km radius warning of the restricted area would not last forever, making Federal Government record-keeping of the zone "vitally important". "But, hopefully, the Aborigines themselves � they have a very good way of keeping records � they have records going back beyond our sort of memory," Dr Williams said. Asked by Democrats Senator Lyn Allison if he meant Dreamtime stories , Dr Williams said "absolutely". "They have their own way of recording things and one would hope with our guidance that would become part of their tradition," he said. However, his comments were branded "an insult to the culture" by Maralinga-Tjarutja elder Archie Barton. "It's an issue that's been created by white man. How the hell do you get that in a Dreamtime story?" he said. Mr Barton said the location of the poisoned site would be passed down from generation to generation. But that was not the same as Dreamtime which, in Aboriginal mythology, was the time in which Earth received its present form and in which the patterns, nature and cycles of life were begun. Taranaki is also the site of most of the controversial trenches from the recent clean-up. Exhumed radioactive material left behind by the British was buried under clean soil instead of being melted into blocks in the original pits in which it had been dumped. The melting process was abandoned following an explosion a year ago. Despite claims the pits were safe, the safety agency's chief executive, Dr John Loy, said they would have to be inspected up to four times a year to ensure they were not interfered with and deadly plutonium released in the dust. Dr Loy said the inspection duties would either fall on the local people, the South Australian Government or the Commonwealth. The safety agency would issue rules soon on the inspection process but Dr Loy said it would be ludicrous to try and enforce a law for 24,000 years. "I think it's only realistic you can only throw out that as a rule for . . . 100 years or 200 years," he said. "And then what happens after that, I guess, is for future generations to decide." Now the clean-up was "complete", Dr Loy said the agency would consult Aborigines on what "their lifestyle might be in occupying the land" and estimate precisely the amount of radiation they would be exposed to. During the recently completed $108 million Maralinga clean-up, it was agreed remediating the Taranaki site would be too costly and create further environmental damage. The Maralinga-Tjarutja people would be allowed only to pass through the land but should not camp there. They were compensated $13.5 million for the loss of its full use and would be able to pursue a traditional lifestyle on the remaining 90 per cent of the Maralinga land. -- _________________________________ Truth is a pathless land. --- Krishnamurti ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------ RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
