Last month the Federal Minister for Energy and Resources, Martin Ferguson announced that he would fast track the decision to build a Commonwealth nuclear waste facility in the outback Northern Territory – reinforcing the previous government’s legislation to over–ride the wishes of the NT Government, and without proper consultation with the traditional owners or the residents of the proposed areas.
Three of the proposed sites, Hart’s Range, Mount Everard, and Fisher’s Ridge are located at defense base sites. The fourth, Muckaty Station was nominated by the Northern Land Council. The station is managed by a land trust comprised of a group of traditional owners. One of this group, the Ngapa family, have nominally agreed to the facility, but many others have not.
The Bowels of the Earth responds to this issue as a Troma inspired touchy feely exploration of the abject, the corporeal and the profane. Cheekily re–purposing LA artist Tim Hawkinson's lung as a giant arse hanging from the ceiling of Carriageworks, the work also incorporates the voices of Mitch (Harts Range), Barbara Shaw (Alice Springs) and Diane Stokes(Muckaty Station) who air their concerns about the dump, uranium mining and its effects on their traditional countries. You can listen to them speak here.
Gustavo Böke, Claire Conroy, Michaela Davies, Damian Martin & Sumugan Sivanesan.
Underbelly Festival 2008
Carriageworks, Sydney
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