The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #168402 Message #4085843
Posted By: rich-joy
31-Dec-20 - 09:23 AM
Thread Name: Mudcat Australia-New Zealand Songbook
Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
Continuing some music in the Australian Atomic Age :
Two very different approaches in songwriting, about the (on-going) disasters of Maralinga. First up is Pitjantjatjara band, The Wedgetail Eagles, and the second, Midnight Oil.
But meanwhile, more on THE GREAT SHAME JOBBERY (and sorry for the long post ….)
Scholar, poet, author, visual artist, musician, Judith Nangala Crispin, has written ***Five Threnodies for Maralinga published here : https://www.axonjournal.com.au/issue-c1/five-threnodies-maralinga(recommended reading) and on this webpage : http://demosjournal.com/maralinga/ has included a 1952-1963 timeline and comprehensive list of Britain’s nuclear tests in Australia, including the quantities contained of Plutonium, Uranium, Beryllium, and so on ** in comparison to the small quantities in the devastating bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – which is illuminating, to say the least.
Also included are the names, ages and death-dates of 68 babies and young children buried in Woomera Cemetary during the years of the Tests, many of whose deaths have been attributed to the 10 years of “minor” trials (some 550) of nuclear weapons at Maralinga, which ultimately, generated more contamination than the major tests. Those people who lived and worked at the long-range missile-testing “Woomera Rocket Range” (open to tourists these days but a “closed town” from 1947-1982), had signed the “Official Secrets Act” and their pleas for a proper explanation of their family deaths were met with either silence, lies, or sealed records. 68 babies and children lost to their families. Something to think on.
It has been estimated that some 17,000 servicemen from Australia, Britain, New Zealand and Canada, and civilians, were exposed (many deliberately) to the atomic testing and radiation during the period from 1952 to 1963 the vast majority of whom, were never compensated in any way for resulting ill health. For most, any records were edited, hidden or destroyed, meaning they could never even prove they had been present.
[ and in 2020, Govts and MSM wonder why folk would rather believe “conspiracy theories” than TRUST politicians, bureaucrats and scientists, et al : I mean, REALLY???!!! ]
There are many short documentary films and clips on YT concerning the history of atomic testing in Australia and elsewhere. I missed the documentary film “Maralings Tjarutja” earlier this year, but maybe it can be found somewhere….. : “The film shows the experiences of the Maralinga Tjarutja people, in which the elders "reveal a perspective of deep time and an understanding of place that generates respect for the sacredness of both", their ancestors having lived in the area for millennia.[185] Despite the disregard for the traditional homelands of the Maralinga Tjarutja shown by the British and Australians involved in the testing, they have continued to fight for their rights to look after the now-contaminated land..[190] :
*** A threnody is a wailing ode, song, hymn or poem of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person. WIKI
** also radioactive Cobolt 60 tracer pellets, found scattered all over the landscape after one test, not listed
“MARALINGA” was an Aboriginal word meaning "thunder", but not in the Western Desert language of the local people; it came from Garik, an extinct language originally spoken around Port Essington in the Northern Territory.[28]
BtW, Happy New Year! [I think I’m almost ready to move on from this particular research – it’s just too depressing]
To The Music!!
MARALINGA – WEDGETAIL EAGLE BAND
The Wedgetail Eagles were a popular central desert Aboriginal rock band from the Pitjantjatjara tribe in Australia.
Pumani Michael / Amos Lennon / Victor Tunkin c.1984
Where the red dust blows across the land Is the place where my people used to stand Where the Maralinga bomb went off that day
And now Mamu*** roams everywhere And Anangu wait to go back there Where the Maralinga bomb went off that day
They came across our land that day Our food and homes they took away It seemed as though we might just fade away
By Anangus strong and living still We'll make the white man pay the bill Till the Maralinga people go back home
The wind it blew, the stormclouds grew And when the sky went dark we knew That the Maralinga bomb went off that day
It's my fathers land you see And its calling out inside of me It's the land my people still call "back home"
They came upon our land that day Our food and homes they took away It looked as though we might just fade away
By Anangus strong and living still We'll make the white man pay the bill Till the Maralinga people go back home
Where the red dust blows across the land Is the place where my people used to stand Where the Maralinga bomb went off that day
And now Mamu*** roams everywhere And Anangu wait to go back there Where the Maralinga bomb went off that day
They came upon our land that day Our food and homes they took away It looked as though we might just fade away
By Anangus strong and living still We'll make the white man pay the bill Till the Maralinga people go back home
*** The Maralinga Tjarutja people, refer to the land around ground zero as "Mamu Pulka", Pitjantjatjara for "Big Evil".
Spoken : I come from a land of wide open spaces Where the world turns around us and we just follow suit There's heat in the air and peace reigns supreme Got white flags on the clothes lines and the deals are clean
In the wind, the ashes fly The poisoned crown, the charcoal ground And if you can't see the smile in me That's where I wanna be
There's only god, there's only christ Think I'll lie down, for just a while And if you can't see the smile in me Well, that's where I wanna be
Spoken : And the grass became granite And the sky a black sheet Our bed was a graveyard We couldn't feel our blistered feet And the moaning and groaning and sighing of death And the silence that followed And the very harsh reality
So we watch and check them out and listen as we learn Throw the pearls before the swine, ebb and flow and turning tide Yeah we watch and catch them up no matter how they jump The pigs will have to come to ground,we got to make it happen Well, it's not really that new, yeah, try and make it happen now What are we to do, yeah, maybe there's a chance for you
All around, an eerie sound Their dreams a cloud, their world in shrouds Coz in the wind, those ashes fly Not much time, but time to try
And if you can't see the smile in me, that's coz I wanna be I wanna be here at the end, Yes I want to be here at the end Well, we have to be here at the end ….. I got to be here at the end, We must be here at the end.