The passing of Bob Ellis recalls his faithful accompanying of the 1984–1985 royal commission into the British nuclear tests conducted in South Australia in the 1950s and 1960s. He went 'to England and back' and, as he described it, 'to each black polis' of the royal commission hearings.
Ellis' article on the Wallatina hearings (The National Times, 3–9 May 1985), described what he named as the commission's 'worst story of all' — Edie Milpudie's telling of herself and her family camping, in May 1957, on the Marcoo bomb crater.
She told of being 'captured by men in white uniforms ... forcibly and obscenely washed down, miscarrying twice and losing her husband who to prove to the soldiers he knew English, sang, "Jesus loves me, this I know. For the Bible tells me so."
'And how the soldiers shot their beloved irradiated dogs.'
'The bad parts of the story,' Ellis went on, 'the miscarriage and afterward, were communicated to Jim (Commissioner McClelland) in secret session, in the distance in the bush, with Edie's women friends giving her comfort, and prompting with giggles and nudges her reminiscence of a story they knew by heart, already an old legend.
'Jim called these women the best in the world, unstinting comforters, inextinguishable friends ... '
Five years later I had the privilege myself of meeting Edie Milpudie at her Oak Valley camp in the SA Maralinga lands. Many of the Yalata elders had prepared me in a way with the constant mantra: 'Milpudie — she went through the bomb.'
Re-reading the Ellis article the night before, I was surprised to find tears stinging my eyes. It's so good, I realised, when truth is recognised and held up for our freedom — in the recognition of the 'upsidedown-ness' of our lives and history. 'What has been hidden will be made known and shouted from the housetops.' 'The truth will set you free.'
"She told of being captured by men in white uniforms, forcibly and obscenely washed down, miscarrying twice ... And how the soldiers shot their beloved irradiated dogs."
At our meeting, nothing much happened. But after that personal encounter Edie's story became even more real to me. I knew her family in the following years and so am a witness, however many times removed, to the sufferings and terrible ill health which has afflicted them throughout the generations.
In July 2004, a six-year anti-nuclear campaign spearheaded by Aboriginal women, who themselves had suffered in the British nuclear tests, was successfully concluded with the federal government's announcement: 'No national radioactive dump for SA.'
But who could have imagined that just 11 years later, a new and far more dangerous plan would be launched by another royal commission, perhaps the first royal commission to plan a future scheme rather than examine one past.
Since this royal commission's 'tentative findings' in February for South Australia to import international high-level nuclear waste, which it actually names as radioactive for 'many hundreds of thousands of years', the scepticism among South Australians is growing.
Economists Richard Denniss, chief economist of the Australia Institute, and Professor Richard Blandy, of University of South Australia, point out that the economics quoted in the tentative findings are simply conjectures. Dr Jim Green, noting the commission's 'industry advocacy', points out that the projected 600 permanent jobs would increase the present number of employed Australians by just 0.005 per cent.
Key environmental groups point out that the commission fails to admit 'that there is a consensus or near consensus among qualified scientists that there is no threshold below which radiation is harmless'.
Only after the commission has finished in May will the process for finalising a site begin. As the Josephite national media release last month warned: 'Josephites fear that the proposed sites for the storage of this high-level waste are likely to be on Aboriginal lands.
'These are some of the most vulnerable and sacred lands in Australia, and the proposal is clearly in direct conflict with the interests of many Indigenous communities.'
Nor are good manners during negotiations the answer. As the Josephite SA Reconciliation Circle Response to RC Tentative Findings points out, 'No amount of cultural protocol in negotiations as outlined in these detailed findings ... will have meaning when the aim is to undercut the very basis of culture: protection of land and kin including every future generation.'
The southern Pitjantjatjara were removed to Yalata in 1952 to make way for the nuclear tests.
The position of the Yalata leaders themselves was made clear, in a statement from Mima Smart, former longterm chairperson, and Russell Bryant, present chairperson of Yalata Community Inc:
'We are determined not to have this poison — this radioactive waste. We said "No" last year and we say "No" now. A lot of people died from that poison. We want to keep the young generations. Think about it! Not only white people live in Australia.'
Let's hope that there is no shortage of those who, like Ellis, will recognise the truth of this, and hold it up for all to see.
Michele Madigan is a Sister of St Joseph who has spent the past 38 years working with Aboriginal people in remote areas of South Australia and in Adelaide. Her work has included advocacy and support for senior Aboriginal women of Coober Pedy in their campaign against the proposed national radioactive dump.
Edie Milpudie photo by Michele Madigan. Published with permission of the family.