Open Spaces: Environmental Racism, Settler Colonialism, and the Testing Fields of South Australia

Abstract:

In 1956, the British-administered Operation Buffalo commenced in remote South Australia, and on September 27 of that year, the first atomic bombs to be tested at Maralinga exploded into the atmosphere. This activity marked the beginning of a series of nuclear tests to be conducted on indigenous-held lands which had, up until that point, been overseen by the Maralinga Tjarutja, a Pitjantjatjara people in western South Australia to which Maralinga held fundamental spiritual significance. Despite this, the Maralinga Tjarutja were forcibly relocated to a settlement at Yalata, on the south coast of the state, and when the lands were returned to their custodianship in the mid 1980s, they remained contaminated with nuclear residue. Although some efforts have been made in an attempt to remedy the injustice caused by the British and Australian governments in their efforts to become global superpowers, fundamental failings prevail today. This research focuses on domestic and foreign government policy, legal systems, and British-Australian international relations to better understand the Western world’s ongoing colonial relationship with the concepts of indigeneity, ownership, and land.