our staff
Dimity Hawkins
Program Coordinator
Dimity Hawkins AM PhD (she/her) is a queer nuclear free activist and researcher living as a settler in Australia.
Dimity was a co-founder of the Nuclear Truth Project. She began as a Co-Coordinator alongside Pam Kingfisher in October 2022, and is now the Program Coordinator. Her work as Program Lead is building on our foundational projects as well as advocacy for recognition, rights, and inclusion of those with lived experiences of nuclear harms. She is an advocate for accountability and transparency for nuclear weapons testing, particularly in the region where she lives.
Dimity was also a co-founder of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons (ICAN) and a Board member and campaigner for ICAN Australia. She is also a current National Committee member with the Australian Nuclear Free Alliance (ANFA), an Indigenous led forum supporting communities impacted by past, existing or proposed nuclear projects in Australia.
Dimity was recognised in 2019 through the Australian Honours system having been made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for “significant service to the global community as an advocate for nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.”
Dimity completed her PhD which focussed on nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific region between 1946-1996, in particular the rise of nuclear resistance in Fiji. Engaging in critical discourses informed by activism historiography and post-colonial frameworks, the thesis seeks to rebalance dominant narratives through a re-collection of memory, archival discovery and political analysis.
In addition to the work with the Nuclear Truth Project, Dimity has over three and a half decades of voluntary, pro-bono and paid work in the civil society sector as an advocate on issues of nuclear disarmament, peace and broader social, environmental and human rights activism. Dimity lives and works on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nations, in Naarm (Melbourne), Australia.
What I love about the Nuclear Truth Project
"The Nuclear Truth Project arose in deep conversations between affected community members and nuclear abolition advocates in the wake of the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. When the Truth Project began, it was with a clear intention to centre the voices, knowledge and expertise of those with the lived experience of nuclear harms. This includes nuclear weapons and all parts of the nuclear chain, from cradle to grave, uranium to nuclear waste dumping and much else.
For me, having grown up in Australia and Pacific Islands, these issues have been a lifelong passion. How could they not be – our region was subjected to 315 nuclear weapons tests over 50 years last century. This fact overshadowed my childhood in the Pacific, and informed my politics over decades of activism since.
Nuclear weapons are seen as a weapon to threaten cities. But the reality is from the very start these were often tested on occupied and colonised lands – on places misconceived by foreign forces as ‘remote’, ‘far away’ or even ’empty’. These places were none of these things to the people and cultures who live there.
The nuclear armed states greatly benefited from the silences that could be imposed on those colonised or subservient to foreign powers. Denial and secrecy have been key to the nuclear age, imposing silences over medical, environmental, scientific, human rights, Indigenous rights, and other legal and political considerations. Through the Nuclear Truth Project we hope to challenge many of these silences.
The Nuclear Truth Project offers connection and collaboration with affected community members. We work to bring community together in story and strategy, inviting conversations and exchange. Our intent is to uplift the expertise of those who truly know the harm to our planet and lives due to nuclear activities. Whether focussing on identifying best practice for working within, alongside or for affected communities through Protocols, seeking transparency and accountability through our nuclear archive work, or connecting with community members and allies across the world, to work with the Nuclear Truth Project is a profound education and a true privilege.“