Contaminated Country
Nuclear Colonialism and Aboriginal Resistance in Australia
Jessica Urwin author Paul S Sutter editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:University of Washington Press
Publishing:22nd Jul '25
£23.99
This title is due to be published on 22nd July, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£95.00(9780295753782)

The destruction and defiance that swirled around Australia's embrace of the world's nuclear order
Though a nonnuclear state, Australia was embroiled in the military and civilian nuclear energy programs of numerous global powers across the twentieth century. From uranium extraction to nuclear testing, Australia’s lands became sites of imperial exploitation under the guise of national development. The continent was subject to rampant nuclear colonialism. However, this history is not just one of imposition. Aboriginal communities, bearing the brunt of these processes, have persistently resisted, reclaiming their rights to Country and demanding reparations.
As Jessica Urwin shows, extraction, weapons testing, and nuclear waste disposal have caused incalculable physical, spiritual, and cultural harm to Aboriginal communities and lands. Yet Indigenous peoples all over the world have not only survived nuclear colonialism but challenged it time and time again. Tracking the colonial mechanisms Australia used to pursue a nuclear industry, Urwin simultaneously highlights how Aboriginal peoples refused and reshaped those same mechanisms over time. A groundbreaking book, Contaminated Country reveals how Australia’s deep nuclear past has been entangled with colonialism locally, nationally, and internationally.
ISBN: 9780295753799
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
296 pages