Anohni has announced that she will walk 180 kilometres across Western Austria this week to support an indigenous community’s fight against a proposed open cart uranium mine.
Alongside the Martu people of Parnngurr, a community whose land may be under threat from the mine, Anohni is preparing to spend eight days walking across WA to attempt to prevent the construction of a joint Mitsubishi and Cameco mine on the Martu people’s traditional land.
Posting to social media, Anohni says the group of protest walkers will consist of over 100 people. “In 2 days time, I am joining my Martu friends Nola and Curtis Taylor and over 100 other people from Parnngurr and neighboring communities in the Western Australian Desert on an 8 day, 180 Km protest walk from their remote community to the site of Mitsubishi and Cameco’s proposed open cart uranium mine,” Anohni says.
“The proposed Kintyre mine is on their traditional lands and a threat to their well-being, as well as being gouged out of Karlamilyi National Park.”
The Kintyre mine currently has conditional approval from state and federal governments and a land use deal signed by some Martu representatives last year, but many people are still opposed to it.
Speaking to The Guardian last year, Anohni said, “For the Martu in Parnngurr, the community nearest the proposed uranium mine, the plan is causing distress.
“Some of the women elders of Parnngurr seem not only to fear the potential danger that any uranium mine will obviously pose to the watershed and the local environment, but they also feel an existential burden of responsibility as the stewards of that land to protect dangerous resources from being exploited.”
Anohni spent 10 days living with the Martu people in 2013. She has raised awareness for the Martu community ever since, and spoke on National Indigenous Television this week about the group’s upcoming walk. Catch that interview, below.
To join the Martu people’s walk to the Kintyre mine, or to donate or follow their progress, head to the Walking For Country website.
Anohni, who formerly fronted Antony & The Johnsons as Antony Hegarty, performed four show at the Sydney Opera House this week as part of VIVID Live, in what were the Australian live premieres of her debut solo album, Hopelessness.
Watch: Anohni On NITV News (From 1:15)
