Manuwangku, Under the Nuclear Cloud Canberra opening – Jagath Dheerasekara photographer exibition

……“Nomination of their traditional lands as a domestic nuclear waste dump site in 2007, coupled with proposals for Australia to ‘lease’ uranium and take back nuclear waste from overseas, have generated justifiable fear and concern among the Aboriginal communities in and around Muckaty (Manuwangku), 120 km north of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory…….

Sunday April 7, 4:30-6pm
Photographs by Jagath Dheerasekara
Curated By Judith Crispin

Special guest speaker: Muckaty Traditional Owner Penny Phillips

“Manuwangku, Under the Nuclear Cloud” is a photographic exhibition presenting the community and country in the Northern Territory targeted to host a federal radioactive waste dump. The photos aim to break down the conception that these areas are the ‘middle of nowhere‘ and thus suitable for dumping of hazardous materials.

Sri Lankan photographer Jagath Dheerasekara received the Amnesty International Human Rights Innovation Grant 2010 and has developed the exhibition as a collaborative project with the Beyond Nuclear Initiative and Muckaty Traditional Owners.

Please support this important campaign by attending the Canberra opening and considering a donation to assist with costs for Penny Phillips to travel from Tennant Creek.

Details for contributions are at: http://beyondnuclearinitiative.com/donate/

Date:Sunday April 7, 2013
Time:430pm-6pm
Entry:$15 or $10 for students/members
Venue: Manning Clark House Gallery,
11 Tasmania Circle, Forrest, ACT

Jagath Dheerasekara (Australia):

Manuwangku, Under the Nuclear Cloud

“Nomination of their traditional lands as a domestic nuclear waste dump site in 2007, coupled with proposals for Australia to ‘lease’ uranium and take back nuclear waste from overseas, have generated justifiable fear and concern among the Aboriginal communities in and around Muckaty (Manuwangku), 120 km north of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory.

Manuwangku, Under the Nuclear Cloud attempts to document the spirit, connection to land and collective voice of this community, as they protest in defence of their right to live in a clean environment, free from hazardous waste.”

Photography, a boyhood passion, took on a new meaning for Jagath Dheerasekara as a university student in Sri Lanka, when he began documenting the mass political killings of the late 1980s and early 1990s. A key member of Students for Human Rights, his resulting detention as a political prisoner led to exile, when France granted him political asylum.

He returned to Sri Lanka following the regime change in the mid 1990s and settled in Australia in 2008, where his work now focuses on Aboriginal, refugee and environmental themes. He was an Amnesty International Human Rights Innovation Fund grant recipient in 2010 and a finalist in the William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize in 2011, and exhibits his work internationally.

Images © Jagath Dheerasekara.

http://jagathdeerasekera.blogspot.co.uk/

March 22, 2013 - Posted by arclight2011 | Uncategorized