The Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta is a council of senior Aboriginal women from Coober Pedy, South Australia. [1] [2] They protest against Government plans to dump radioactive waste in their land, and for the protection of their land and culture. [3]
The council was formed in 1995 by Eileen Kampakuta Brown, Eileen Wani Wingfield and other Aboriginal elders. The elders come from the Arabana, Kokatha, Yankunytjatjara and Antikarinya peoples. [4] Kupa Piti is the Indigenous name for Coober Pedy; kunga tjuta means 'many woman' in the Western Desert language. [5]
Brown and Wingfield were awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2003 for their efforts. [6]
In August 2004 the Australian government abandoned its plans for the nuclear waste dump, after a court decision. [2]
Coober Pedy is a town in northern South Australia, 846 km (526 mi) north of Adelaide on the Stuart Highway. The town is sometimes referred to as the "opal capital of the world" because of the quantity of precious opals that are mined there. A blower truck is raised above the town sign, representing the importance of opal mining to the town's history. Coober Pedy is also renowned for its below-ground dwellings, called "dugouts", which are built in this fashion due to the scorching daytime heat.
The Goldman Environmental Prize is a prize awarded annually to grassroots environmental activists, one from each of the world's six geographic regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, and South and Central America. The award is given by the Goldman Environmental Foundation headquartered in San Francisco, California. It is also called the Green Nobel.
Yankunytjatjara is an Australian Aboriginal language. It is one of the Wati languages, belonging to the large Pama–Nyungan family. It is one of the many varieties of the Western Desert Language, all of which are mutually intelligible.
The District Council of Coober Pedy is a local government area located around the opal mining town of the same name in Outback South Australia. The district's economy is based on the large opal deposits found beneath it, which have made it a major mining centre and also a popular tourist destination.
Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara, also known as APY, APY Lands or the Lands, is a large, sparsely-populated local government area (LGA) for Aboriginal people, located in the remote north west of South Australia. Some of the Aṉangu (people) of the Western Desert cultural bloc, in particular Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra peoples, inhabit the Lands.
The Peter Rawlinson Award is an annual Australian environment award by the Australian Conservation Foundation consisting of $3000 and a plaque made to individuals who have made an outstanding voluntary contribution to the Australian environment. It commemorates Dr Peter Rawlinson's contribution as an environmental campaigner and researcher. Rawlinson was an ACF Treasurer and Vice President and a biologist and conservationist who died while doing field work in Indonesia in 1991.
Mintabie is an opal mining community in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara in South Australia. It was unique in comparison to other communities situated in the APY Lands, in that its residents were largely not of Aboriginal Australian origin, and the land had been leased to the Government of South Australia for opal mining purposes since the 1980s.
Nuclear weapons testing, uranium mining and export, and nuclear power have often been the subject of public debate in Australia, and the anti-nuclear movement in Australia has a long history. Its origins date back to the 1972–1973 debate over French nuclear testing in the Pacific and the 1976–1977 debate about uranium mining in Australia.
Eileen Kampakuta Brown is an Aboriginal elder from Australia. She was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2003 together with Eileen Wani Wingfield, for their efforts to stop governmental plans for a nuclear waste dump in South Australia's desert land, and for protection of their land and culture.
Eileen Wani Wingfield is an Aboriginal elder from Australia. She was jointly awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2003 with Eileen Kampakuta Brown, for efforts to stop the plans for nuclear waste dump in Australia's wild desert land, and for protection of their land and culture.
The Conservation Council of South Australia, also known as Conservation SA and Conservation Council SA, is an environmental organisation serving as a peak body, representing over 50 member groups, representing over 90,000 individual members, in the state of South Australia.
Muckaty Station, also known as Warlmanpa, is a 2,380-square-kilometre (920 sq mi) Aboriginal freehold landholding in Australia's Northern Territory, 110 kilometres (68 mi) north of Tennant Creek, and approximately 800 kilometres (500 mi) south of Darwin. Originally under traditional Indigenous Australian ownership, the area became a pastoral lease in the late 19th century and for many years operated as a cattle station. It is traversed by the Stuart Highway, built in the 1940s along the route of the service track for the Australian Overland Telegraph Line. It is also crossed by the Amadeus Gas Pipeline built in the mid-1980s, and the Adelaide–Darwin railway, completed in early 2004. Muckaty Station was returned to its Indigenous custodians in 1999.
Alex Kelly is an Australian freelance artist, filmmaker and producer based in regional Australia. Kelly was born in regional NSW and grew up in a farming community near Wodonga in regional Victoria,
The nuclear industry in South Australia is focused on uranium mining, milling and the export of uranium oxide concentrate for use in the production of nuclear fuel for nuclear power plants. The state is home to the world's largest known single deposit of uranium, which is worked by BHP at the Olympic Dam mine.
Tony Tjamiwa, also known as Tony Curtis, was a highly respected elder, traditional healer and storyteller of the Pitjantjatjara people. He was a native speaker of the Pitjantjatjara language.
Mount Willoughby Indigenous Protected Area is an indigenous protected area in the Australian state of South Australia located in the gazetted localities of Mount Willoughby and Evelyn Downs about 150 kilometres north-west of the town of Coober Pedy.
The Yankunytjatjara people, also written Yankuntjatjarra, Jangkundjara, and other variants, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of South Australia.
The Antakirinja, otherwise spelt Antakarinya, and alternatively spoken of as the Ngonde, are an indigenous Australian people of South Australia.
The Kokatha language, also written Kukatha, Kokata, Gugada, and other variants, and also referred to as Madutara, Maduwonga, Nganitjidi, Wanggamadu, and Yallingarra and variant spellings of these, is an Australian Aboriginal language of the Western Desert group traditionally spoken by the Kokatha people, whose traditional lands are in the western part of the state of South Australia, north of the Wirangu people.
Betty Muffler is an Aboriginal Australian artist and ngangkari (healer). She is a senior artist at Iwantja Arts, in Indulkana in Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara, South Australia, known for a series of works on large linen canvases called Ngangkari Ngura .