Exposure 2016 opens on Friday night with ‘Talking Straight Out', an exhibition showcasing the earlier Irati Wanti campaign. Senior Aboriginal women from Coober Pedy, the Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta, took on the federal government and won. They stopped a radioactive waste dump from being built in northern S.A.

Talking Straight Out: Images and insights from the campaign that stopped South Australia from becoming a nuclear waste dump.

Where: The Institute Theatre, 52 Commercial Road, Port Augusta

Opening night:  Friday 2 September - doors open 5.30 pm; speakers from 6pm. The exhibition will open until Sunday 4 September.

(Click here to register for the full program in addition to Talking Straight Out)

In 2004, after a six-year battle, the Federal Government abandoned the plan to impose a national nuclear waste dump in central SA. The campaign was led by senior Aboriginal women, the Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta, many of them victims of the British atomic bomb tests half a century ago. This year marks 63 years since the first British nuclear test detonated on the Australian mainland.

Talking Straight Out features images and insights from the remarkable campaign that stopped SA from becoming the nation's nuclear waste dump. For six years the Kungka Tjuta travelled the country, ‘talking straight out’. They called their campaign Irati Wanti − the poison, leave it. They explained, they demanded, they marched and sang. They told of extraordinary personal histories. They wrote passionate letters to politicians. They won. They published a book to share their stories. Now the Kungka Tjuta are sharing their message again.

There is talk again about radioactive waste dumps in South Australia. When word got to Coober Pedy, women got together to talk again. As Mrs Emily Austin says, “We know the stories from the bomb. We know the history. We know the country. And it is crying for us. We will talk over and over and we won’t stop. For the kids and the land and for all the Kungkas that aren’t here. Everyone has to say no. Irati Wanti - the poison leave it”.