Forewords

Russell Bryant (Chair, Yalata Community) and Mima Smart (elder, painter, singer)

We represent the Yalata community and our painters, musicians, sculptors and storytellers. We want to welcome you to this collection of writings and artworks. From 2014 to 2016, the Alphaville arts company worked at Yalata as visiting artists. The projects included a music project in which we translated the song Maralinga into Pitjantjatjara, and we held concerts and produced a CD. Men in the community worked on sculptures and this led to the gift of a peace sculpture to the Nagasaki Peace Park. Several of our community members travelled to Japan for the installation ceremony and for cultural exchange. We also produced a new book Maralinga's Long Shadow about one of our artists and her family, and our women painters produced a collection of new art works. All of these art works were exhibited at Tandanya in Adelaide for a major exhibition in 2016, along with a film about our community's experience of the atomic bomb and the closure of the Ooldea Mission. All of these projects are important to spread the story of our community to our young people and also outside the community, including to other countries. They have created a strong sense of pride and achievement, and they have inspired our artists to continue with new projects.

Maxine Goodwin (Nuclear Veteran Descendant)

As a twenty-year-old R.A.A.F. serviceman, my father was dispatched to Onslow Western Australia to participate in the first British nuclear test. As a radar technician, he serviced Dakota aircraft that patrolled the West Australian coastline between Onslow and Broome. On the 4th of October 1952, a day after the detonation of the first British nuclear test, one of these Dakota aircraft made contact with the radioactive cloud, my father on board at the time. This event almost 70 years ago shaped not only my father's life, but that of my mother, myself, my siblings and our children. My connection to storytelling through creative arts began when I met Alphaville's Creative Producer Paul Brown in 2003. Through verbatim theatre, I heard for the first time my own thoughts and reflections expressed outside of my own head. It was a rewarding and positive experience. Nuclear Futures has continued to provide me with an avenue to connect with other veterans and their descendants both in Australia and internationally. Most importantly however, it has brought together the shared experiences of nuclear survivor communities worldwide. I welcome the publication and distribution of our stories of loss, strength and resilience through platforms such as Unlikely.

Above photos by Pam Diment, Jessie Boylan, Daniel Marwick, Ben Searcy, John Walden, and Tania Safi. Bomb painting by Alinta Smart.