Aunty Sue Coleman-Haseldine, a senior Googatha elder and anti-nuclear activist, is leading a campaign against rocket and weapons testing on sacred Googatha Country.

With the support of West Mallee Protection group, Coleman-Haseldine issued a formal no consent to the militarisation of Googatha Country in July last year. It was addressed to Southern Launch and hand delivered to global weapons’ manufacturers working with the company.

Southern Launch is an Australian aerospace company, which established the Koonibba Test Range on a 41,000 square kilometre area of Googatha Country.

Rockets, hypersonics, drones and “long duration air vehicles’ are tested on the range. Southern Launch claims that the Koonibba Test Range is on “uninhabited land” but this is not true: Googatha people are on the land, continuing their culture.

Markela Panegyres spoke to Coleman-Haseldine, a Maralingar nuclear test survivor, about the campaign.

The federal Labor government continues to fund and approve rocket and weapons testing without the free, prior and informed consent of First Peoples. How is the No Consent campaign going?

We always have to fight. We took the campaign from Ceduna to Tarndanya/Adelaide and the world last year. I would like to take the campaign to Canberra and Naarm/Melbourne, to get the word out more. By protesting, I’m upholding my Law.

What is your experience of rocket testing on Googatha Country?

I was put in danger. I was out on Country when Southern Launch did a rocket launch. We only found out when a helicopter swooped close overhead. I got scared and left the camp.

I’m very concerned about the health and safety of animals when there is a rocket launch/testing. What is the fallout? What kind of pollution? What is being tested? Habitat is being desecrated. The abundant wildlife in Googatha is at risk — cockatoos, lizards, snakes and birds.

I regularly go on to Country to engage in the Traditional practice of rock-hole........

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