Naoto Kan views the Ranger uranium mine from the air, 2014.

The Mirarr had long expressed concern that uranium mined on their country would harm others. In 2011, this fear became reality when an earthquake and tsunami caused a meltdown at the Tokyo Electric Power Company’s nuclear complex at Fukushima. Uncontrolled radiation releases impacted the land, sea and sky and devastated communities. This saw mass evacuations, exclusion zones and severe economic loss.

Mirarr Senior Traditional Owner Yvonne Margarula wrote to the then UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon: “Given the long history between Japanese nuclear companies and Australian uranium miners, it is likely that the radiation problems at Fukushima are, at least in part, fuelled by uranium derived from our traditional lands. This makes us feel very sad”.

Australia uranium producers, including BHP and Rio Tinto have been major suppliers to the Japanese nuclear sector. In 2011, the Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office acknowledged that Australian uranium was fuelling Fukushima when the reactors failed. In 2014 former Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, Japan’s leader at the time of the crisis, flew over Kakadu and met with Yvonne Margarula and Mirarr and shared his story at events around the country. Twelve years later the clean-up cost in Japan has exceeded $A 120 billion and is expected to reach $A 1 trillion. The current plan to dump large volumes of contaminated wastewater directly into the Pacific Ocean has galvanised regional concern and the sorry story of Fukushima dislocation and damage has decades to run.

Dominic O’Brien / Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation