Indigenous Voices
by MIMA SMART, KEITH PETERS, RUSSEL BRYANT, JEREMY LEBOIS, STEVE HARRISON, SHILLOH PEEL, JOHNNY LOVETT and ROSLYN PETERS
- View Keith Peters' Biography
Keith Peters is a musician and songwriter, and key spokesperson for the Yalata community. He has represented the Maralinga communities in handover ceremonies returning control of Maralinga Lands to Anangu.
- View Mima Smart's Biography
Mima Smart OAM is a, painter, singer and community leader at Yalata. She has served as the Chair of the Yalata Community Board, and is a leading advocate for her community’s development and well-being.
- View Russell Bryant's Biography
Russell Bryant is an Anangu resident of Yalata. He is a musician in the Yalata Anangu rock band, a Lutheran pastor, and a member of the Maralinga Tjarutja Council.
- View Jeremy LeBois' Biography
Jeremy LeBois is Chair of the Maralinga Tjarutja Council, and led the Anangu delegation to Nagasaki for the unveiling of the sculpture gifted to the Nagasaki Peace Park.
- View Shilloh Peel's Biography
Shilloh Peel is a youth leader working in community in the far west of South Australia.
- View Roslyn Peters' Biography
Roslyn Peters is a singer and musician from Yalata.
- View Steve Harrison's Biography
Steve Harrison is an Anangu carver and painter from Yalata, who was the Leading hand for the Yalata sculpture project and key artist for Tree of Life Gift of Peace.
- View Johnny Lovett's Biography
Johnny Lovett has a music career spanning 56 years, performing across the greater parts of Australia. He has 11 country music albums to his credit.
Indigenous Voices
Mima Smart, Keith Peters, Russell Bryant, Jeremy LeBois, Steve Harrison, Shilloh Peel, Johnny Lovett and Roslyn Peters
At Ooldea: photo by Jessie Boylan
The following webisodes feature several of the indigenous storytellers and creative artists who contributed to the Nuclear Futures Partnership Initiative across 2014-2016. Mima, Keith, Russell, Shilloh and Roslyn are members of the Yalata community where many of the artworks included in this special issue originated. Yalata is an Anangu community on the far west coast of South Australia, 1000 kilometres from Adelaide by road. Around 300 people live in the township -- primarily Pitjantjatjara Anangu who descended from the desert people in the north and north-west of SA. The families were displaced from the Maralinga Tjarutja lands and from Ooldea prior to the British atomic bomb tests that took place at Emu and Maralinga in the 1950s. Jeremy LeBois is Chair of the Maralinga Tjarutja Council and Maralinga is his ancestral land. Johnny Lovett is from the Gunditjmara community in Western Victoria, with Pitjantjatjara family connections. The Nuclear Futures community arts projects at Yalata coincided with controversial proposals by the South Australian government to extend nuclear industry in South Australia, including proposals for new nuclear waste repositories.
WEBISODES
1) Keith Peters, Anangu elder and musician at Yalata, reflects on the history of Maralinga and why he rejects proposals for nuclear waste dumps
2) Mima Smart OAM, community leader and visual artist at Yalata and Oak Valley, explains the impacts of nuclear testing including forced migration away from the Ooldea Mission
3) Jeremy LeBois, Chair of the Maralinga Tjarutja Council meets with atomic survivor groups at Nagasaki following the installation of the Australian sculpture in the Nagasaki Peace Park
4) Shilloh Peel, Yalata youth leader at the Nagasaki Peace Museum, as a member of the Anangu delegation for the unveiling of the sculpture 'Tree of Life: Gift of Peace' at Nagasaki
5) Russell Bryant, community leader and musician reflects on the gift of a sculpture from Yalata to the Nagasaki Peace Park.
6) Steve Harrison, Anangu sculptor and carver with his reflections on the Nagasaki sculpture project
7) Johnny Lovett, songwriter/musician and Keith Peters, Yalata elder and musician on the 'Sing Maralinga' music project
8) Mima Smart OAM, community leader and singer and Roslyn Peters, singer from Yalata, with Sharon Bryant singer from Yalata, discuss the music project and the history of Maralinga
Production Credits
Camera/sound: Tania Safi, Jessie Boylan, Dani Marwick, Paul Brown
Editing: Ray Thomas
Producers: Paul Brown, Michele Madigan
