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Indigenous artists lash out against local mining at Darwin Festival with powerful body of work

Artists in the Northern Territory have come together for Darwin Festival, showcasing the best in cultural creativity and talent. But one body of work within the festival held a message about mining which speaks louder than its artistic merit.

“So we’ve put it on our chests to get people to understand what that does to us, and that the mine is not negotiating with the whole community.”

A group of artists from Borroloola area of the Gulf of Carpentaria have presented a photographic series which they hope will awaken their audiences to the impacts of mining upon their communities. Particularly that of the McArthur River Mine, which has created significant pollution to their waterways and surrounds, threatening the health of their kids and their ability to live in safety.

Spokesperson and Indigenous leader Jack Green has spoken out telling the ABC“I want to get more information out there to Australia that we’re hurt inside. Because the mine has damaged our sacred site, the Rainbow Snake. They’re taking all the guts, the minerals, out of that snake.”

The emotionally charged series is an honest and captivating look into the people being affected first had by the mine’s activity.

The mine was originally opened in 2007 and has since expanded when in 2013 it expanded again 90o kilometres from Darwin. Each year the site’s environmental officer has found increasing number’s of dead fish in the estuary, a clear indicator of contamination.

Darwin Festival is running until August 27th. See more info here.

See the series below:

[via ABC]