THE THUNDER FIELDS OF MARALINGA
Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2011 8:26 am
The Background:
The last piece of tribal land was finally returned to the Tjarutja people in December 2009....................over 50 years from the time the Government under Bob Menzies took it from them to do their Atomic testing. The land will never be fit for human habitation for 250 million years and is still littered with Plutonium particles despite a supposed clean up by the British Government in 1964. Servicemen who were affected by the fall out and Aboriginal people are still battling to receive any worthwhile compensation form the Governments who caused this disaster. The land is highly radio active.............and every time the wind blows, she shares her fetid breath with us all.............Maralinga, in the Pitjantyara Aboriginal language means "Field of Thunder."
THE THUNDER FIELDS OF MARALINGA
Maureen Clifford ©
Across the red sands of the desert where the silvery Spinifex grows,
winds are twisting, howling searching, all around they swirl and blow.
Little eddies curl and turn like Mamu* ‘neath the blazing sun
from the plains spring up dust devils fetid with Plutonium.
Removed from tribal lands were Tjuntjuntjare and Kokothar,
Reasons to them were not given; they were forced to travel far
from the waters of Ooldea*, from their tribal red dirt lands.
None took notice of their protests - their fate rests in white mans hands.
Wire appeared across the tracks and places where Anangu* went.
Words were written on tin signs but none knew what the words meant.
Warning signs saying there's "danger - do not enter" here no more.
Anangu could not read English, so who were those signs there for?
Then fierce wind, black smoke and lightning came. Their Gods angry display?
A roar rolled over 'Thunder Fields' causing all great dismay.
Then soon they saw thousands of rabbits, blinded by the light.
These rabbits stumbled, fell and died - a mystifying sight.
Sickness came, the children died, with strange blisters on their skin.
They suffered tiredness, aching joints, headaches and vomiting.
The Anangu did not know why. Had they their Gods upset?
Dead animals were everywhere, and death now dogged their step.
How could they know these simple folk? Their Dreamtime did not tell
of unleashed horror such as this, of acid rains that fell.
A poison that for years untold would blight and curse this land,
their dreaming paths forever cursed and caused by white man’s hand.
The Gods now took their great revenge, not just on native souls
but white men too withered and died, and still the lies were told.
The land poisoned forever, each grain of earth, each rock and tree
No more a place of dreaming, or of quiet tranquillity.
For evermore the poison stays, the winds capture the soil
and send it travelling in red clouds, far places to despoil.
Dust blows to cities and to towns, miles from these poisoned plains
and every drop of dust that falls, is deadly acid rain.
And never will this story end, though Tjarutja people have reclaimed
their lands, they cannot live there nor can they hunt the plains.
But tribal links are very strong - land holds their heart and Dreaming.
The souls of Ancestors are here, and they go on believing.
But truth to tell there still remains plutonium - nineteen tons
Two fifty million years must pass before the dangers gone.
It is the land of mamu* now a land of death and sorrow.
Let’s learn from this insanity and not repeat tomorrow.
Maralinga you were once the home much loved by Tjarutja
where kangaroo and wallaby roamed and native gidjirrigaa
and Eagles flew in majesty and grace above your plains.
Maralinga now Australia’s sad monument to shame.
* Anangu - Tjarutja people, The Maralinga Tjarutja are the Indigenous Australian people who traditionally inhabit the remote western areas of South Australia. They are a Southern Pitjantjatjara people.
mamu - spirits,
Ooldea - sacred site.
gidjirrigaa - budgerigar
The last piece of tribal land was finally returned to the Tjarutja people in December 2009....................over 50 years from the time the Government under Bob Menzies took it from them to do their Atomic testing. The land will never be fit for human habitation for 250 million years and is still littered with Plutonium particles despite a supposed clean up by the British Government in 1964. Servicemen who were affected by the fall out and Aboriginal people are still battling to receive any worthwhile compensation form the Governments who caused this disaster. The land is highly radio active.............and every time the wind blows, she shares her fetid breath with us all.............Maralinga, in the Pitjantyara Aboriginal language means "Field of Thunder."
THE THUNDER FIELDS OF MARALINGA
Maureen Clifford ©
Across the red sands of the desert where the silvery Spinifex grows,
winds are twisting, howling searching, all around they swirl and blow.
Little eddies curl and turn like Mamu* ‘neath the blazing sun
from the plains spring up dust devils fetid with Plutonium.
Removed from tribal lands were Tjuntjuntjare and Kokothar,
Reasons to them were not given; they were forced to travel far
from the waters of Ooldea*, from their tribal red dirt lands.
None took notice of their protests - their fate rests in white mans hands.
Wire appeared across the tracks and places where Anangu* went.
Words were written on tin signs but none knew what the words meant.
Warning signs saying there's "danger - do not enter" here no more.
Anangu could not read English, so who were those signs there for?
Then fierce wind, black smoke and lightning came. Their Gods angry display?
A roar rolled over 'Thunder Fields' causing all great dismay.
Then soon they saw thousands of rabbits, blinded by the light.
These rabbits stumbled, fell and died - a mystifying sight.
Sickness came, the children died, with strange blisters on their skin.
They suffered tiredness, aching joints, headaches and vomiting.
The Anangu did not know why. Had they their Gods upset?
Dead animals were everywhere, and death now dogged their step.
How could they know these simple folk? Their Dreamtime did not tell
of unleashed horror such as this, of acid rains that fell.
A poison that for years untold would blight and curse this land,
their dreaming paths forever cursed and caused by white man’s hand.
The Gods now took their great revenge, not just on native souls
but white men too withered and died, and still the lies were told.
The land poisoned forever, each grain of earth, each rock and tree
No more a place of dreaming, or of quiet tranquillity.
For evermore the poison stays, the winds capture the soil
and send it travelling in red clouds, far places to despoil.
Dust blows to cities and to towns, miles from these poisoned plains
and every drop of dust that falls, is deadly acid rain.
And never will this story end, though Tjarutja people have reclaimed
their lands, they cannot live there nor can they hunt the plains.
But tribal links are very strong - land holds their heart and Dreaming.
The souls of Ancestors are here, and they go on believing.
But truth to tell there still remains plutonium - nineteen tons
Two fifty million years must pass before the dangers gone.
It is the land of mamu* now a land of death and sorrow.
Let’s learn from this insanity and not repeat tomorrow.
Maralinga you were once the home much loved by Tjarutja
where kangaroo and wallaby roamed and native gidjirrigaa
and Eagles flew in majesty and grace above your plains.
Maralinga now Australia’s sad monument to shame.
* Anangu - Tjarutja people, The Maralinga Tjarutja are the Indigenous Australian people who traditionally inhabit the remote western areas of South Australia. They are a Southern Pitjantjatjara people.
mamu - spirits,
Ooldea - sacred site.
gidjirrigaa - budgerigar
