Anohni to Protest Uranium Mine With 110-Mile Desert Walk

Back in 2013, Anohni spent 10 days living with the Martu, an Indigenous Australian people whose home encompasses a large part of the Western Australian desert. She has since advocated for the Martu by donating concert proceeds, singing at awareness-raising events, and discussing issues affecting Martu people in television appearances. Now, Anohni has announced further activist plans: In two days, she will embark on an eight-day, 110-mile walk across the Western Australian desert. The protest will involve more than 100 Martu people from in and around Parnngurr and concerns plans to build a uranium mine within 50 miles of the community. That plan, a joint venture between Cameco and Mitsubishi, which has received approval from the federal government, poses “a threat to [the Martu people's] wellbeing,” according to Anohni. Read her post below.

Read “Anohni Finds Hope in Hopelessness.”

ANOHNI TO WALK 180 KM ACROSS WESTERN AUSTRALIAN DESERT WITH THE MARTU PEOPLE TO SUPPORT FIGHT AGAINST URANIUM MINE “In 2 days time, I am joining my Martu friends Nola and Curtis Taylor and over 100 other people from Parnngurr and neighboring communities in the Western Australian Desert on an 8 day, 180 Km protest walk from their remote community to the site of Mitsubishi and Cameco’s proposed open cart uranium mine. The proposed Kintyre mine is on their traditional lands and a threat to their well-being, as well as being gouged out of Karlamilyi National Park. Curtis and I did a piece about it on National Indigenous Television network today.” – Anohni image of Martu artist Ngalangka Nola Curtis http://www.ccwa.org.au/kintyre #martu #uraniummine #indigenousrights #protest #corporatecorruption #karlamilyi #mitsubishi #cameco #parnngurr

A photo posted by ANOHNI (@anohni) on Jun 1, 2016 at 12:48am PDT

Speaking to the Guardian last year, Anohni said:

For the Martu in Parnngurr, the community nearest the proposed uranium mine, the plan is causing distress. Some of the women elders of Parnngurr seem not only to fear the potential danger that any uranium mine will obviously pose to the watershed and the local environment, but they also feel an existential burden of responsibility as the stewards of that land to protect dangerous resources from being exploited.

The Parnngurr artist Wokka Taylor explained:

Forever that uranium belongs to that place, underground. But it’s poison when you dig it up – when it gets exposed. Like a mother carrying a baby … we are carrying the land, we are that close. This is the reason we hold our children close, our food, but mainly our waters. We look after our water … One way, leave it in the ground forever. Old people are less but we have more young people being born. We have to look after them. We are talking up for country.

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