On Australian Shores: Survivor Stories
November 23, 2018
PROJECT Summary
Ngikalikarra Media conducted personal interviews with those directly and indirectly affected by the Agriculture Protection Board (APB) herbicide spraying programs across the East Kimberley and West Kimberley region of Western Australia. These personal interviews were also conducted in Perth, Western Australia and surrounding regions as many of those workers and their families need medical attention only available in this city.
Contributions By Ngikalikarra Media
Perth Interviews (10)
Travelling & Recording ( 30 hours )
Interviews
You can access all the interviews at https://goo.gl/AYmAJ1
Full URL: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLubghhkO4O7i2nSaAOKjXHYRNZYQJJGWL
Ngikalikarra Media and Project Supporters have committed to producing ‘On Australian Shores: Survivor Stories’, a series of short interviews with those who either worked for, volunteered or who were indirectly affected by the legacy of the Agricultural Protection Board (APB) spraying program during the 1970s -1980s across the East Kimberley and West Kimberley.
Since June 2018 Magali and I have been travelling closely with and listening to the stories from families who have been adversely affected by the Agriculture Protection Board (APB), an Australian Government program which operated throughout Australia.
Eugene Mcmahon, Executive Producer and Cultural Adviser has been with the Ngikalikarra Media team to document stories from those families in the Kimberley region of Western Australia in that period. The focus of the project is in listening to these stories, producing documentaries based on those accounts and taking these to the United Nations, Human Rights, Office of the High Commissioner (OCHCR) - https://www.ohchr.org/EN/pages/home.aspx
Media Release & Investor Prospectus
Download the Media release & Investor prospectus - PDF
Contains:
Letter to all Elected Members of the Australian Parliament;
Action Plan;
Press Release;
Investor Prospectus;
Regional Documentary / Episodes.
Media Release
‘On Australian Shores: Survivor Stories’
- Personal accounts from those directly and indirectly affected by the Agriculture Protection Board (APB) herbicide spraying programs across the East Kimberley, West Kimberley, Pilbara, Gascoyne & Murchison, and Mid West, Western Australia -
Ngikalikarra Media are producing ‘On Australian Shores: Survivor Stories’, a series of short interviews, episodes, and documentaries from differing Australian regions with people who were directly and indirectly affected by the legacy of the Agricultural Protection Board (APB) spraying program in Western Australia.
Survivors and their Families provide personal stories on camera or audio recounting what they consider is Australia’s ‘worst kept secret’. Participants were/are invited to engage in ‘yarning’ conversation, recounting their knowledge of this largely untold and unheard Australian tragedy.
“...We talk about the Stolen Generation...this was worse than that. That's the only way I can describe it." - Ernest William James Hunter, Nyikina Elder, Derby, Western Australia, October 2018
Note: Due to the distressing content, all short films produced and shared by international social media, online repositories or by hard disk are prefaced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural warnings. Direct consent to record, edit and aggregate these stories are retained on film at the point of conversation.
Radio Interview 1
Eugene McMahon was interviewed by Sandy Dann at Goolarri Media, Broome, Western Australia regarding the APB ‘On Australia Shores: Survivor Stories’ documentary and project.
14th November 2018 - Download the MP3
RADIO INTERVIEW 2
ABC Kimberley Radio ‘Morning Show’ with Vanessa Mills
“.. Eugene McMahon is the Executive Producer and Cultural Advisor for Ngikalikarra Media for the series called "On Australian Shores: Survivor Stories". The APB workers sprayed weeds using a dioxin called 2,4,5-T in the 1970s and 80s without protective equipment.”
20th November 2018 - Access the recording online [ HTML ]
WEST KIMBERLEY DOCUMENTARY SCREENING
Broome, Western Australia
Wednesday, 21st November 2018
Hall 1 - Lotteries House, Cable Beach Road, Broome, Western Australia
Opening 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM - Tea & Coffee provided
FREE ENTRY
Numbers Limited - FOAF Facebook Registration
https://www.facebook.com/events/782290792122051/
Down flyer - PDF
EAST KIMBERLEY DOCUMENTARY SCREENING
Derby, Western Australia
Friday, 23 November 2018
Civic Centre, Loch Street, Derby, Western Australia
Opening 6:30PM - 9:00 PM - Tea & coffee provided
FREE ENTRY
Numbers Limited - Open Public
https://www.facebook.com/events/311658609655042/
Download Flyer - PDF
In Eugene’s words;
“…On behalf of the People,
We demand answers.
Questions have already been asked for thirty years from all the Families that have been impacted by the the use of 2,4,5-T and other toxic chemicals as part of the Australian Governments endorsed weed eradication programs in Australia.
The ‘On Australian Shores: Survivor Stories’ Project has provided Families who have lost loved ones with an opportunity to relate their stories on camera, despite their heartache. Their statements and our research, have highlighted the lack of duty of care of the Australian Government and the misleading information the victims were provided with during their time of employment.
Despite successive inquiries, reports and extensive press coverage these Families still have no answers to the questions that have been exhaustively posed to all government authorities, such as the whereabouts and return of human remains still housed in medical warehouses.
Recommendations made in those reports have been ignored and continued inaction from all levels of government still prevails in 2018.
Those Families demand answers, recognition and compensation. The Australian Government needs to own this issue and be accountable for this genocide.”
Action Plan
Action Plan: APB Survivors
On behalf of the People,
We demand answers.
Questions have already been asked for thirty years from all the Families that have been impacted by the the use of 2,4,5-T and other toxic chemicals as part of the Australian Governments endorsed weed eradication programs in Australia.
The ‘On Australian Shores: Survivor Stories’ Project has provided Families who have lost loved ones with an opportunity to relate their stories on camera, despite their heartache. Their statements and our research, have highlighted the lack of duty of care of the Australian Government and the misleading information the victims were provided with during their time of employment.
Despite successive inquiries, reports and extensive press coverage these Families still have no answers to the questions that have been exhaustively posed to all government authorities, such as the whereabouts and return of human remains still housed in medical warehouses.
Recommendations made in those reports have been ignored and continued inaction from all levels of government still prevails in 2018.
Those Families demand answers, recognition and compensation. The Australian Government needs to own this issue and be accountable for this genocide.
Letter to All Elected MemberS of the Australian Parliament
1st November 2018
Dear
RE: On Australia Shores: Survivor Stories Project
We bring to your attention a matter of both utmost importance and unjustifiable legacy which has not yet been addressed by the Australian Government despite numerous commissioned reports and scientific studies.
Throughout many regions of Australia the Agriculture Protection Board (APB) and other Government agencies employed workers to spray ‘weeds’ with herbicides and defoliants including 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T ( 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid is the chemical which received notoriety after it was extensively used as a defoliant in the Vietnam war). The toxic effect of spraying without correct training nor personal protection equipment (PPE) from 1975 through to late 1985 as per Worksafe guidelines has been catastrophic on workers and their Families.
Our research indicates that these workers fulfilled their duties in conditions that also exposed their families and intergenerational siblings to these known toxins via their work clothes, vehicles and work equipment. According to Dr. Anne Poelina who also lost a Brother and many Family members over the last forty years, this has been a wilful, systematic and purposefully negligent system with genocidal implications.
This project has been in development since 1979 when Agriculture Protection Board (APB) workers in the Kimberley region of Australia demonstrably exhibited physiological and psychological effects of toxicity due to exposure in their workplace. This matter is considered by those who have been affected directly and indirectly as Australia’s ‘worst kept secret’ and many call for recognition, compensation and closure, especially Lucy Marshall OAM whose Sons remains are still kept in Australian Government medical warehouses against all cultural beliefs.
We hereby place yourself on notice as a duly elected member of the Australian Parliament to address this matter promptly as follows;
Communicate directly with Eugene McMahon, Executive Producer and Cultural Advisor for the ‘On Australian Shores: Survivor Stories’ project;
Schedule a face-to-face or web conference meeting with Eugene McMahon to receive a background briefing on the project.
In all instances please direct your written correspondence as noted in the header. All other verbal correspondence and communications regarding this matter to be directed through Executive Producer & Cultural Advisor, Eugene McMahon.
Yours Sincerely,
Eugene G. McMahon
Executive Producer & Cultural Advisor
On Australia Shores: Survivor Stories Project
Each story tragically provides an account of how the government endorsed program wilfully according to some, set about sending teams of young predominantly Aboriginal men into remote locations to spray the deadly dioxin 2,4,5-T - 2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxyacetic acid and mixed with 2,4-D and/or diesel;
“…2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (also known as 2,4,5-T), a synthetic auxin, is a chlorophenoxy acetic acid herbicide used to defoliate broad-leafed plants. It was developed in the late 1940s and was widely used in the agricultural industry until being phased out, starting in the late 1970s due to toxicity concerns. Agent Orange, a defoliant used by the British in the Malayan Emergency and the U.S. in the Vietnam War, was equal parts 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D (2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid). 2,4,5-T itself is toxic with a NOAEL of 3 mg/kg/day and a LOAEL of 10 mg/kg/day.”
LISTEN TO THE PROJECT OVERVIEW
You can listen to the podcast by Dylan Storer below or access it online also at https://omny.fm/shows/the-edge/documentary-sharing-stories-of-agent-orange-sprayi
Sponsors
LEARN MORE
This project is being privately funded by project supporters Amanda and Peter McCasker as well as Colin McCumstie, Sons Cain and Dale McCumstie have all provided financial and communications support to produce the West Kimberley region episode playlist at https://goo.gl/AYmAJ1
Read more about the project here - http://www.ngikalikarra.org/projects/on-australian-shores