NUCLEAR TRUTH PROJECT OPEN CALL

From the Frontlines Webinar

Thank you for registering to our open call ‘From the Frontlines’ last week. We welcomed nuclear-affected communities, supporters and allies from across Australia, United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Spain, Qazaqstan and Aotearoa/New Zealand.

We are grateful for those of you who shared your updates in our open call. These included:

  • Cherokee woman Pam Kingfisher and co-founder of the Nuclear Truth project, shared urgent updates from Oklahoma and Kansas, where proposals for developing small modular nuclear reactors are being fast-tracked by state governments and drilling has already begun on a new reactor site.

  • We welcomed community activist Marjorie Reynolds of the Prairie Dog Alliance who spoke movingly about her grassroots organising in Kansas in response to these developments including her weekly ‘listening post’ at the local library to educate and inform locals.

  • Dave Sweeney, Nuclear Free Campaigner for the Australian Conservation Foundation, highlighted the Australian Nuclear Free Alliance’s focus on pushing for genuine free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) for First Nations communities facing nuclear waste sites in Australia, and the efforts to meet the UN Special Rapporteur for Indigenous Peoples visiting Australia in November. Adnyamathanha woman, Dr Jillian Marsh, spoke of the importance of working closely and directly with affected communities to workshop and develop understandings of concepts like FPIC.

  • Tim Wright, Treaty Coordinator of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) updated the group on the upcoming NPT Review Conference (April 27 – May 22) and the TPNW First Review Conference later in the year. He responded to the serious concerns raised by affected community members about participation in these UN conferences in  New York under current US visa restrictions and other political considerations. Dimity Hawkins, Program Coordinator for the Nuclear Truth Project, spoke about a letter recently signed by 29 organisations that has been sent to the Chair of the Coordination Committee of the TPNW Review Conference and UNODA seeking solutions to these concerns.

  • Indira Weaver, a current Reclaim Community Fellow, shared her powerful personal journey as someone born near the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site in Qazaqstan, reflecting on the language barriers that exclude so many affected community members from global advocacy spaces. She spoke movingly of the importance of the Nuclear Truth Project’s Protocols.

Throughout it all, the call was a powerful reminder of why solidarity across cultures, time zones, and frontlines remains essential in these troubled times.

Some of the other important resources that were shared throughout the webinar:

Thank you for joining! We aim to hold our next From the Frontlines open call in July. We hope you can join us then.

In solidarity,

The Nuclear Truth Project team.