Foreign Flag Over Our Sovereign Country

Opening today at the National Museum of Australia is the exhibition “Black Mist Burnt Country: Testing the Bomb, Maralinga and Australian Art”. The show uses painting, photography, sculpture and music to shine a light on the human and environmental impact of hundreds of British atomic tests, large and small, conducted in South Australia and Western Australia between 1952 and 1963. The tests resulted in the forced displacement of Indigenous peoples from their lands and prohibited access well into this century due to the damage to the land and danger of residual radiation. Rosemary Laing’s 2013 photographic work shows the devastation at the major Totem 1 test site – in the background, on a raised tripod, flutters the Union Jack. It is both confronting and insulting as are the remarks made by an Australian Minister in federal Parliament in 1955 that we were ready to help out the mother country due to her technical know-how and our can-do ingenuity: talk about Terra Nullius and it is only 60 years ago. The Burringa national touring exhibition (burringa.org.au), in conjunction with the Anhangu Pitjantjatjara people of Yatala and Oak Valley Maralinga, runs until 18 November.