Maralinga's long shadow, Yvonne's story by Christobel Mattingley
Allen and Unwin, 2016. ISBN 9781760290177
(Age: 11 - Adult) Highly recommended. Aboriginal peoples. Nuclear
weapons. Biography. Non-fiction. Maralinga's long shadow
continues the themes explored by Christobel Mattingley in
collaboration with the Anangu people in Maralinga,
the Anangu story (2009) and Survival in our own land
(1988).
This latest book is Yvonne Edward's story, a story that reflects the
experience of too many Aboriginal people, turned off their
traditional land and their children taken away. Yvonne's
recollections expose the further horror of the Maralinga nuclear
bomb tests carried out by the British government from 1953 to 1957.
As Yvonne says so powerfully it was her grandparents' home that was
bombed. 'That was their home where the bomb went off', sending up a
radioactive cloud and contaminating the land. Subsequent generations
of Yvonne's family suffered the consequences. Her husband was one of
the Aboriginal men sent in to clean up the site without the
protective clothing worn by the white men. Her family and others
travelled through the area unaware of the dangers to their health.
Devastatingly, her husband and two sons died of cancer and her
grandson was born with a stomach defect. Yvonne herself died before
she could finally work on the story she wanted people to know about.
But Mattingley had collected enough notes from their long
conversations to be able to bring the book to fruition. It is an
important story to tell.
Learning about this terrible history through the lived experience of
Yvonne's family makes it so much more potent, and very sad.
Mattingley uses simple though often poetic language to tell the
story, often using the words of Yvonne herself. Coloured photographs
of the people and country make it very real and personal. This
story, and Yvonne's beautiful paintings reproduced in the book,
creates a wonderful legacy of a strong and courageous woman, proud
in her culture, and determined to be heard.
Helen Eddy