Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta council of women elders, representing Antikarinya, Yankutjatjara, Arabunna, Kokatha people, together with Arabunna elder Kevin Buzzacott, the Humps not Dumps Camel Crusaders,and the Keepers of Lake Eyre, gathered on the 9th of August at the Warina railway siding for a traditional Arabunna naming ceremony for the camels.
Kevin: "The camels have Arabuna names because they're born here, and because their home is threatened."
The group met with Japanese and BBC journalists about the proposed dumping of nuclear waste on their land.
The council of women elders the Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta are sending their message of opposition loud and clear to the international press.
"We are aboriginal women, we know the country, we were born on the earth, we were born in the sand. The poison the government is talking about will poison the land. We say NO RADIOACTIVE DUMP IN OUR COUNTRY it is strictly poison -we dont want it."
The dumping and mining of deadly radioactive waste on the traditional desert homeland of the Kukatha and Arabuna people in Billa Kalina south Australia is yet another act in the continued dispossesion and genocide of Aboriginal and Torresw Strait islanders in this country. This is aboriginal land.
Despite hollow promises and shallow rhetoric about "reconciliation" from the Australian government, the lack of justice and respect for the Aboriginal custodians of this great land continues. These acts negate the possibility of any meaningful conciliation between indiginous and non indiginous Australians.
As international eyes focus on Australia, the Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta, Camel Crusaders, Arabuna elder Kevin Buzzacott, and the Keepers of Lake Eyre, join together and call on all members of the international community to increase the pressure on the Australian government to stop the national and international radioactive waste dump and all other nuclear developments on aboriginal land.
The Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta say "this is Aboriginal land ,the country is crying. We don"t come from overseas".
Arabuna elder Kevin Buzzacott says "the girls are carrying the big word (wanga panta berroo). Don`t leave waste in the desert. Stop the wars, make peace. That's why the camels have Arabuna names, because they're born here and because their home is threatened.
The camels are called ..........
oodjala(coiya coiya) (little one).....little kungka;;izz
kutar (water)..mel
wanga pantar (travelling with the big message)......catherine
dini dinta (willy wagtail dreaming)....wren
wobmerra (wind).. lu
puteroo (dust).....sophia
nurri nurri (lots of flies)..... jules
makka (fire).... j9
It is high time to repect the land ,the wisdom of the oldest culture on earth.
NO NUCLEAR WASTE DUMP IN OUR COUNTRY.