On 21 August I came out of an Adelaide preview of The Australian Dream, Stan Grant's documentary about the racialised mistreatment of the former AFL footballer Adam Goodes, for a brief interview on our local ABC's Evening Show. The topic: the resumption of federal government visibility and determination to both deposit and dump nuclear waste in either the Flinders Ranges or Kimba regions.
Later I reflected on this synergy. One of these threatened areas was the location for The Australian Dream's dramatic opening panoramic shot: Adam Goodes, a tiny figure in a vast landscape, with the Ranges of his ancestors in majestic background.
The Australian Dream arrives in cinemas following what the Koori Mail named its television 'companion piece' — The Final Quarter. Both films, with scenarios largely confined to AFL ovals and the television studios of Australian commentators, are high on violence: violent words from individual commentators, violent boos, mob violence. Even for the spectator, the violence becomes horrifying; the relentlessness of the continued booing and the viturpation of the usual suspect commentators — all directed at one man. As Grant summarised, 'They hounded that man, hounded him into submission.'
I wonder sometimes if this kind of vehement rage towards certain persons has parallels with the attitude and actions of some among us 'latecomers' to this country, to the country itself. It shows itself in a determination to exploit the country, to commodify it, to rape it of its resources; all done with entirely no regard for the consequences — on lands, on precious waters and eventually on all of us, the human race, who rely on creation for our survival.
There is at best exasperation, and at worst, genuine anger shown to many Australians seeking to defend country: to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander defenders certainly. In regard to non-Aboriginal people, the word 'greenie' has become largely a term of derision. Certainly a commentator like Andrew Bolt makes the easy switch from his sustained attacks on Goodes and other Aboriginal heroes to derisive comments on 16 year old environmentalist Greta Thunberg.
The Flinders became a place of healing refuge for Goodes. Yet the glory of its incredible antiquity has not been enough to shame the Minister and the Department for Industry, Innovation and Science (DIIS) in the four-year journey of seriously considering this place of ancestry, beauty, earthquakes and floods as host to Australia's nuclear waste which will remain dangerous for 10,000 years. Neither has being part of just six per cent of Australia's arable lands served any protection for the international grain-farming region of Kimba as the alternative choice.
As Goodes paid heavily for his defence against racism, defending country continues to be a costly business for the people of the Flinders and Kimba regions whose communities are irrevocably torn apart by the National Radioactive Waste Management Facility project. Despite Barngala Traditional Owners appealing against Justice White's 12 July decision that their native rights give them no right to vote, the Kimba Council has recently decided their opinion ballot is to go ahead anyway — from 3 October to 7 November. In contrast, the Flinders Ranges Council is requiring a risk assessment before proceeding with their ballot. The Adnyamathanha people's appeal remains undecided.
"Such is the toll we take in our nation on those who stand up for the good of country and for all its peoples."
On 13 August, DIIS, in meeting with the Barndioota Consultative Committee in the Flinders, confirmed that the size of the proposed site would now be 60 per cent larger. On 21 and 22 August Minister Canavan visited both areas for brief 'consultative' meetings, declaring the site decision is likely before the end of this year, and acknowledging that this may take place before the Flinders ballot. While again refusing to give a named acceptable percentage on such a ballot, Senator Canavan stressed the ballot was just one component in the decision making. Other evidence will include the 1000 submissions in this still open process.
On his 26 August Evening Show, Peter Goers interviewed an enthusiastic proponent — the Member for the vast federal seat of Grey. Rowan Ramsey was indignant that 'outsiders' were daring to protest the project. As well as ignoring his companion interviewee, local Greg Bannon, Ramsay revealed his misconception that other South Australians and indeed other Australians have no right to object. In claiming no knowledge of nuclear transport accidents, clearly he had not heard of the 1994 spill near Port Augusta, to name just one example; nor that transporting and simply 'storing' the spent fuel rods from the Lucas Heights reactor is exponentially more dangerous than Olympic Dam yellowcake transport.
In his Sunrise interview on 31 August, the shocking effect on Goodes of the viciously focused campaign against him was clear. Four years after his retirement Goodes, who has become an Ambassador for the Salvation Army among many other good works, wondered out loud whether he'd ever watch a football game again.
He would understand completely the sustained stress and emotional pressure on the defenders of the Flinders and Kimba regions. Such is the toll we take in our nation on those who stand up for the good of country and for all its peoples.
Michele Madigan is a Sister of St Joseph who has spent the past 38 years working with Aboriginal people in remote areas of SA, in Adelaide and in country SA. Her work has included advocacy and support for senior Aboriginal women of Coober Pedy in their campaign against the proposed national radioactive dump.