Contaminated Country

During the twentieth century, Australia was embroiled in the military and civilian nuclear programmes of numerous global powers. From uranium extraction to weapons testing, Australia's lands became sites of imperial exploitation under the guise of national development and were subject to rampant nuclear colonialism. Aboriginal communities, bearing the brunt of these processes, persistently resisted, reclaiming their rights to Country and demanding reparations.

As Jessica Urwin shows, extraction, testing, and waste disposal have caused incalculable physical, spiritual, and cultural harm to Aboriginal communities and lands. Tracking the colonial mechanisms Australia used to pursue the nuclear industry, Urwin simultaneously highlights how Aboriginal peoples rejected and reshaped those same mechanisms. Contaminated Country reveals how Australia's nuclear past has been entangled with colonialism locally, nationally, and internationally.