Pressure kept after protest walk
Musician Anohni is making sure focus is maintained following a protest march against a proposed uranium project.
The internationally-renowned Anohni, formerly known as Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons, has joined the Martu people on the 110 kilometre walk from the Parnngurr community to the site of Cameco's Kintyre project in WA.
Anohni criticised the mining venture at the conclusion of the long march over the weekend.
“In many regards, I think the guys who run Cameco are desolate souls, desolate souls with no home, with no connection to land, with no connection to country,” she said.
“A lot of the white people on this trip, we come from generations of people who have experienced that same disconnection and are trying to reconnect to country. And that's why in so many regards, I feel like a student of the Martu.
“If we don't restore it, there won't be an Earth to walk on within a hundred years. There won't be an Earth worth walking on.”
The Kintyre project received conditional state and federal environmental approvals last year, after the uranium deposit was acquired by Cameco and joint venture partner Mitsubishi Development in 2008.
Cameco maintains that communities near Kintyre are generally supportive of the project, pointing to the Indigenous Land Use Agreement with the Martu people in 2012.
Cameco has also defended the long-term prospects for the nuclear industry, saying it would remain strong enough to base future projects on the assumption of improved market conditions.
But Martu elder Nola Taylor says locals still have concerns that the mine would contaminate her people's waterways.
There are also fears that the waste may not be stored safely, especially given the 20 threatened native species in the area.