David Sweeney reprinted with permission from
Poison Fire, Sacred Earth,
TESTIMONIES, LECTURES, CONCLUSIONS,
THE WORLD URANIUM HEARING, SALZBURG 1992
pages 198-199

. . . The theme of this meeting and what a lot of things have been spoken about has been that of dispossession, the story of dispossession. We've heard sad stories and wrong stories of people being dispossessed from their native lands. One thing we haven't heard so much about is: What happens to the dispossessed people, where do they go and what happens to the people that oppress them as well?
. . . As the country we know, Australia was born of a lie. Gracelyn yesterday spoke of the principle of "terra nullius", the principle of empty land. Now, that was and remains wrong, it's a lie, it's a fiction and yet, it provided the so-called legal framework to justify the settlement or the invasion of Australia. It also provided the premise or the thinking that Australia is a vast, empty, rich land. And that's a very dangerous series of assumptions to work on. At the time of the white invasion of Australia, western Europe and in particular Britain was dominated by a functional culture, it was a mechanistic view of the world. It saw the world as a machine and it saw developed peoples as the mechanics, they knew how to tinker with it to get the most out of it. . . .
The spirit of the land is what we are all trying to protect. I wish us all success in this and in our struggle to stop this industry which causes so much pain to so many people in so many places.



David Sweeney

David Sweeney, Australia. Member of "Friends of the Earth ", co-ordinator of the Anti-Nuclear Campaign for the past five years.

Good morning and greetings! My name is Dave Sweeney. This is just a few things that I'd like to share with you today, basically from the perspective of a non-Aboriginal Australian person. The theme of this meeting and what a lot of things have been spoken about has been that of dispossession, the story of dispossession. We've heard sad stories and wrong stories of people being dispossessed from their native lands. One thing we haven't heard so much about is: What happens to the dispossessed people, where do they go and what happens to the people that oppress them as well?

Australia is, in my view, a land of the two. Australia is only 204 years old, the building we're sitting in is older, more than the occupation of Australia. As the country we know, Australia was born of a lie. Gracelyn yesterday spoke of the principle of "terra nullius", the principle of empty land. Now, that was and remains wrong, it's a lie, it's a fiction and yet, it provided the so-called legal framework to justify the settlement or the invasion of Australia. It also provided the premise or the thinking that Australia is a vast, empty, rich land. And that's a very dangerous series of assumptions to work on. At the time of the white invasion of Australia, western Europe and in particular Britain was dominated by a functional culture, it was a mechanistic view of the world. It saw the world as a machine and it saw developed peoples as the mechanics, they knew how to tinker with it to get the most out of it. This view, when it was translated to Australia, led to dramatic and immediate ecological destruction. The ecological impact of colonization in Australia has been vast because the land was not viewed as an entity but rather as a series of segmented resources. And people acted accordingly. Forests were felled and they were never again to grow. Sheep were introduced in great proportions and it was to provide cheap wool for English mills. Native animals, hunted to extinction for their fur or because they posed a perceived threat to productive animals. Every use of the land was aimed at making profit, and the land itself was seen of little value. Miners who have played a big part in modern Australian history tore at the heart of the country for the gold, pasturialists turned land into desert in their search for profits. Loggers felled their fine trees which made beautiful European furniture that turned Australia into the dryest continent on the earth. And all the time the native people were pushed away.

Well, Australia in 1992 is different in some ways because the impact of immigration, particularly after the Second [World] War, and the impact of refugees coming to Australia, that brought a lot of diversity, it's brought a lot of change. Melbourne, for example, is the third largest Greek city in the world. So in the last 50 years, there has been a change in that hegemony, that dominant culture. But in the real ruling class in the Australian establishment, there has always prevailed a culture of profit, production, progress. And the nuclear industry is a star witness to this.

Australia has been and remains firmly entrenched in the nuclear industry. There have been bomb tests for a foreign power on Aboriginal land. These have left a legacy of lies and deceit, there has been mining and exploration of uranium which has caused an enormous ecological and cultural damage. Currently in Australia, there are two active uranium mines, one called Roxby Downs in northern South Australia, Joan has spoken of one called Ranger in the Northern Territory. Australia is home to at least a third of the western world's uranium reserves. And the success of the Australian anti-nuclear movement has been to hold in a culture of "dig-it-up" to only two extracting mines in this country. The struggle of the Australian anti-nuclear movement hasn't been an easy one, because the dominant culture of "shoot it -- mine it -- farm it" doesn't take advice easily from a broad coalition of reds, blacks and greens. It's highly likely that in the next years there will be a change of government in Australia. The conservative Labour Party will be replaced by the even more conservative Liberal Party. And the Liberal Party in the coalition sees the light at the end of Australia's economic tunnel as being "dig-it-up". They talk of open slot mining, mineral processing and storage of international high-level nuclear waste. There will be a time when we in Australia will increasingly need the help of people overseas more and more. Sadly, that time will be soon; happily, on the basis of this week, I believe that help will be forthcoming.

I have very little time left, but I would just like to say one thing. I spoke last night with people in Australia and I learned that a friend and a comrade has just died of cancer. I'd like to name him today and acknowledge him here because he was passionate against the nuclear industry and he was passionate for indigenous rights. His name was John Renshaw and he was quite an honourable man. He wrote a poem not long before he passed on and I'd just like to share that with you now:

The spirit of the land is what we are all trying to protect. I wish us all success in this and in our struggle to stop this industry which causes so much pain to so many people in so many places.

Thank you.



Sharon Venne (Moderator)

It's always difficult when you hear that someone has passed on to the other world. But my people have a saying: The people have left this earth for the Creator and so they have gone to a better place. And we that are left behind are the ones that have to mourn them. Because we are left here to carry on the struggle while they have been released into the arms of the Creator. So think not of death as a sad time, but a time of passing for the person who is gone from this earth to a better place. And our whole life as indigenous people is a struggle to live up to the laws of the Creator, so that when we pass to the Creator we go without shame and without any dishonour. And so, for those who are mourning, think of what has happened to them as a happy time, and it's the sadness that we carry in our hearts, for ourselves. We are the sad ones because we have been left behind.

And I'd like to ask our next speaker who is from Japan to let us know what she is going to speak about. She will introduce herself, that's much easier. Thank you.