On Australian Shores
PROJECT SUMMARY
This 52 minute documentary production provides historical accounts of those directly and indirectly affected by the Western Australian government endorsed and funded Agriculture Protection Board (APB) herbicide spraying programs across the East Kimberley and West Kimberley region of Western Australia. The full length documentary will feature on the SBS / NITV channel with Karla Grant presents program on the 20th February 2023.
Dr Magali McDuffie and Dr Alexander Hayes of Ngikalikarra Media conducted research over a three year period, engaging with survivor Agricultural Protection Board workers and their families, listening to their first hand accounts and documenting these interactions as interviews which can be accessed as episodes at the Ngikalikarra Media YouTube channel. These interviews were also conducted in the Perth region of Western Australia as many of those workers and their families were also effected in other areas, notwithstanding this toxin irrefutably was also used all over Australia during this period.
The individual interview episodes and documentary film have all been released under a CC BY 4.0 licence type, with all project members and cultural advisors acknowledged in an international context through the Zenodo repository.
PRESS
SBS / NITV - Karla Grant will present this documentary on the 20th February 2023 - then made available on demand for one year.
Podcast - Goolarri Media with Sandy Dann, Western Australia - 14th November, 2018.
Radio Show - ABC Kimberley ‘Morning Show’ - Eugene McMahon with Vanessa Mills - 20th November, 2018.
Data Repository - Project Framework: Zenodo - 3rd January, 2022.
Festival Press Kit - Film Freeway: On Australian Shore: Survivor Stories - 18th February, 2022.
Article - Sydney Criminal Lawyers ‘WA Poisoned First Nations With Agent Orange: An Interview With Ngikalikarra’s Dr Magali McDuffie’ with Paul Gregoire - 28th March, 2022.
BACKGROUND
Through invitation, Dr Magali McDuffie and Dr Alexander Hayes of Ngikalikarra Media were invited to connect with individuals firstly to listen to their account of the effects of the use of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T, the active ingredients of Agent Orange, a dioxin, toxin and confirmed weapon of mass destruction.
The first accounts from individuals in the Perth region of Western Australia focussed on the loss of children, cancers and numerous other medical conditions which affected those who were working with the Agriculture Protection Board (APB) which had an epicentre location in Derby, Western Australia. The project was then extended with sponsorship from the McCumstie and McCasker families, the Ngalla Maya Corporation, and The First Nations Homelessness Project, when it was identified that teams of young Aboriginal men were conscripted to spray without PPE gear in remote locations of Western Australia.
The legacy of that government endorsed Agriculture Protection Board (APB) project is captured in this 52 minute documentary film, filmed and edited over many hundreds of hours, with constant community consultation.
Screenshot: Project timeline in Adobe Premiere
STORY
On Australian Shores: Survivor Stories will be aired nationally on NITV and SBS on Demand on the 20th February 2023, after SBS-NITV purchased the License Rights in June 2022.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Kimberley Aboriginal workers were involved in weed spraying campaigns organised by the Agricultural Protection Board of Western Australia. They received no training or protection equipment. They were told the chemicals they were mixing and spraying by hand were safe to use. Unbeknownst to them, they were spraying Agent Orange - a mixture of 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D herbicides.
Many healthy young Aboriginal men died in their thirties and forties, leaving behind heartbroken parents, partners, siblings, children, and communities. But the impact was not limited to them. The toxins they were spraying affected their wives, who suffered miscarriages and could not have children, and their own children, who were in contact with their clothes. Aunty Lena Buckle, from Derby, lost a daughter, a son, and a grandson. Many of the survivors today have suffered from cancers and other conditions. Many of their grandchildren are also affected, some born with malformations.
Senior Nyikina Elder Lucy Marshall AM campaigned for the victims of Agent Orange in the Kimberley, until her death - she received an Order of Australia Medal for her tireless efforts. She passed away in 2021, without the answers she was seeking, having lost a son, a grandson, and a nephew. Some of her son's organs are still held in a facility in Perth - against Aboriginal cultural protocols. Read more of this account in human rights and social justice campaigner Gerry Georgatos article ‘Agent Orange used as herbicide throughout the Kimberley’.
Two government enquiries were held in 2003 (led by Dr Andrew Harper) and 2004 (led by Dr Bruce Armstrong). Cancer sufferers were promised compensation - none of the other ailments or deaths were attributed to the use of Agent Orange. The ABC covered the story in a 2014 Four Corners Programme (Chemical Time Bomb). Repeated calls for compensation and recognition of the victims have fallen on deaf ears, due to the statute of limitations.
This important documentary gives voice to 42 people, survivors, family and community members, so that their stories are not forgotten.
MEDIA RELEASE
‘On Australian Shores: Survivor Stories’ is a 54 minute documentary film with personal accounts from those directly and indirectly affected by the Agriculture Protection Board (APB) herbicide spraying programs across the East Kimberley, West Kimberley, Pilbara, Gascoyne & Murchison, and Mid West, Western Australia.
Ngikalikarra Media also produced ‘On Australian Shores: Survivor Stories’, as a series of short interviews, episodes, and documentaries from differing Australian regions with people who were directly and indirectly affected by the legacy of the Agricultural Protection Board (APB) spraying program in Western Australia.
Survivors and their Families provide personal stories on camera or audio recounting what they consider is Australia’s ‘worst kept secret’. Participants were/are invited to engage in ‘yarning’ conversation, recounting their knowledge of this largely untold and unheard Australian tragedy.
“...We talk about the Stolen Generation ... this was worse than that. That's the only way I can describe it." - Ernest William James Hunter, Nyikina Elder, Derby, Western Australia, October 2018
Note: Due to the distressing content, all short films produced and shared by international social media, online repositories or by hard disk are prefaced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural warnings. Direct consent to record, edit and aggregate these stories are retained on film at the point of conversation.
Access all episodes at Ngikalikarra Media YouTube.
PRE-SCREENING CONSULTATION 1
Broome, Western Australia
Wednesday, 21st November 2018
Hall 1 - Lotteries House, Cable Beach Road, Broome, Western Australia
Opening 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM - Tea & Coffee provided
FREE ENTRY
Numbers Limited - FOAF Facebook Registration
https://www.facebook.com/events/782290792122051/
Down flyer - PDF
PRE-SCREENING CONSULTATION 2
Derby, Western Australia
Friday, 23 November 2018
Civic Centre, Loch Street, Derby, Western Australia
Opening 6:30PM - 9:00 PM - Tea & coffee provided
FREE ENTRY
Numbers Limited - Open Public
https://www.facebook.com/events/311658609655042/
Download Flyer - PDF
PROJECT TEAM
Executive Producer & Data Manager- Dr Alexander Hayes.
Filmmaker, Editor & Researcher - Dr Magali McDuffie.
Researcher & Project Advisors - Dr Anne Poelina & Victor Hunter.
Cultural Advisor - Eugene McMahon.
DEMAND FOR ANSWERS
On behalf of the People,
We demand answers.
Questions have already been asked for thirty years from all the Families that have been impacted by the the use of 2,4,5-T and other toxic chemicals as part of the Australian Governments endorsed weed eradication programs in Australia.
The ‘On Australian Shores: Survivor Stories’ Project has provided Families who have lost loved ones with an opportunity to relate their stories on camera, despite their heartache. Their statements and our research, have highlighted the lack of duty of care of the Australian Government and the misleading information the victims were provided with during their time of employment.
Despite successive inquiries, reports and extensive press coverage these Families still have no answers to the questions that have been exhaustively posed to all government authorities, such as the whereabouts and return of human remains still housed in medical warehouses.
Recommendations made in those reports have been ignored and continued inaction from all levels of government still prevails in 2018.
Those Families demand answers, recognition and compensation. The Australian Government needs to own this issue and be accountable for this genocide.
Eugene McMahon,
28th March 2018
Cultural Advisor
On Australian Shores: Survivor Stories
LETTER TO ALL ELECTED MEMBERS OF AUSTRALIAN PARLIAMENT
Sent 1st November 2018.
Dear
RE: On Australia Shores: Survivor Stories Project
We bring to your attention a matter of both utmost importance and unjustifiable legacy which has not yet been addressed by the Australian Government despite numerous commissioned reports and scientific studies.
Throughout many regions of Australia the Agriculture Protection Board (APB) and other Government agencies employed workers to spray ‘weeds’ with herbicides and defoliants including 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T ( 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid is the chemical which received notoriety after it was extensively used as a defoliant in the Vietnam war). The toxic effect of spraying without correct training nor personal protection equipment (PPE) from 1975 through to late 1985 as per Worksafe guidelines has been catastrophic on workers and their Families.
Our research indicates that these workers fulfilled their duties in conditions that also exposed their families and intergenerational siblings to these known toxins via their work clothes, vehicles and work equipment. According to Dr. Anne Poelina who also lost a Brother and many Family members over the last forty years, this has been a wilful, systematic and purposefully negligent system with genocidal implications.
This project has been in development since 1979 when Agriculture Protection Board (APB) workers in the Kimberley region of Australia demonstrably exhibited physiological and psychological effects of toxicity due to exposure in their workplace. This matter is considered by those who have been affected directly and indirectly as Australia’s ‘worst kept secret’ and many call for recognition, compensation and closure, especially Lucy Marshall OAM whose Sons remains are still kept in Australian Government medical warehouses against all cultural beliefs.
We hereby place yourself on notice as a duly elected member of the Australian Parliament to address this matter promptly as follows;
Communicate directly with Eugene McMahon, Executive Producer and Cultural Advisor for the ‘On Australian Shores: Survivor Stories’ project;
Schedule a face-to-face or web conference meeting with Eugene McMahon to receive a background briefing on the project.
In all instances please direct your written correspondence as noted in the header. All other verbal correspondence and communications regarding this matter to be directed through Executive Producer & Cultural Advisor, Eugene McMahon.
Yours Sincerely,
Eugene G. McMahon
Cultural Advisor
On Australia Shores: Survivor Stories Project
BROADCAST
Confirmation that this documentary will be broadcast on NITV and available thereafter on SBS on Demand was received via Sarah Cook, NITV Programming Officer on the 30th August 2022.
The full documentary will feature in the scheduled ‘Karla Grant Presents’ programme on Monday 20th February 2023 (AEST) at 8:30 PM.
Screenshot: SBS On Demand
MEDIA LINKS
Screenshot: NACHO
Screenshot: Sydney Criminal Lawyers
