Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Manufacturing) Share this | Hansard source

It's with great admiration and respect that I speak of the life and achievements of Yami Lester, who passed away on 21 July. Can I thank my two colleagues who have just spoken ahead of me, Mr Snowdon and Ms O'Toole, in respect to him. In particular, I thank the member for Lingiari for providing his personal insight into Yami Lester. It just confirms what I'd already read and heard about him up until I put together my own thoughts about what I would say today.

A Yankunytjatjara man born at the Walkinytjanu Creek outstation in northern South Australia in 1941, Yami Lester survived the British nuclear tests at Emu Field in 1953 to become a leader among his people. I make that statement very clear for several reasons. I've had a considerable number of discussions with people who participated in the tests at Emu Field in the fifties and afterwards. It's a matter that I have raised in this parliament on several occasions and which I've spoken about, including only a few weeks ago. Indeed, only three weeks ago I spoke to a group of people who are trying to put together a memorial in recognition of what took place at Maralinga in the fifties.

The passing of Yami Lester is meaningful in so many ways to me as a person. While other members of the camp died horrible deaths at the time because of the fallout of the black mist, as it's been referred to, Yami Lester suffered permanent blindness when he was just 11 years old. Yet, instead of feeling self-pity about what had happened to him as a child, he went on to try and redress much of the injustice that took place. In my own speeches made in this place, I've referred to, mainly, our Defence veterans and government personnel who were in the area at the time and the treatment that they received afterwards from our governments and, indeed, from the English and Canadian governments, because there were members on duty from those two countries as well at the time.

I haven't said too much about the Indigenous people. The reality is that there were Indigenous people in the lands where the tests took place. I have heard unproven accounts of some of them being put on trucks and taken away. But the reality is that, even for them, the risks were barely minimised because, as with what happened in one particular case, as soon as the bomb was detonated and the plume went up into the air, the wind changed and went in the very direction of where people thought they might be safe. The Indigenous people of that land were some of the worst affected by those tests. In the 1950s it was very much the case that, if you were an Indigenous person, you didn't matter much.

It was in the 1950s and 1960s that we saw a number of Indigenous people, including Yami Lester, begin to take a stand and fight for their rights. We saw huge changes in the years that followed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, culminating in the 1967 referendum. Yami Lester was one of the people who were part of that whole movement. Indeed, it was largely because of his efforts that the 1984-85 McClelland royal commission into the Maralinga tests ever took place. From that commission, there was some compensation provided. Again, my understanding is there were some 1,800 Indigenous people in the area at the time, but I suspect that even those figures would be very vague. It would be difficult for anyone to say with any accuracy just how many people were there. Indeed, it would be very difficult for anyone to say with any accuracy how many of them died as a result of the tests. But Yami was determined to make a difference and help his people—and he did that.

Having done that, he didn't stop there and he didn't ever allow his blindness to stop him from trying to advance the cause and speak up for Indigenous people. He joined the Aborigines Advancement League as a young man. He did welfare work in Alice Springs for the United Mission. He worked with the Institute for Aboriginal Development. He served as a cultural adviser and interpreter for the Anangu people. He was a key figure with the Pitjantjatjara land council, which helped establish the handover of free title to the Anangu people. He helped the Mimili people take control of their own business affairs, and he campaigned for the restoration of the shockingly scarred Maralinga land. I can well remember the handing over of the Pitjantjatjara lands. It must have been around the 1970s. These were not easy issues to be dealing with at the time. But he fought, and ultimately changes were made.

He went on to be an anti-nuclear activist and Indigenous rights advocate and was awarded an Order of Australia medal for his services to Indigenous affairs. There would be few people who would be more worthy of that medal than Yami. Again, it was good to hear the member for Lingiari was able to attend the funeral that was held only yesterday in the APY Lands in South Australia's far north. Fittingly, I understand there were 500 people there. To get 500 people in the middle of nowhere to attend a funeral says much about a person. Those 500 people went there and farewelled him. As the member for Lingiari quite rightly pointed out, he leaves three children. And so to Yami I say: thank you for what you did not just for your people but for us as a nation and in particular as a South Australian for the Indigenous people in South Australia. It is because of people like you that the world often changes. To Yami's family, friends, colleagues and people I not only pay my deep respects but extend my sincere condolences.

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