ANZJA Article in focus | Thunder Raining Poison: The Lineage of Protest Against Mid-century British Nuclear Bomb Tests in Central Australia 

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art, Issue 20.1, Special Issue: War, Art and Visual Culture

Edited by Professor Kit Messham-Muir  andDr Uroš Čvoro

This Special Issue of the Australian & New Zealand Journal of Art follows a year after the symposium titled War, Art and Visual Culture: Sydney (2019).  The project aims to consider the politics of addressing war in contemporary art and visual culture, particularly the potential for conflicts, compromises and complicity.

This weeks article in focus is:

Thunder Raining Poison: The Lineage of Protest Against Mid–century British Nuclear Bomb Tests in Central Australia, Catherine Speck

Catherine Speck discusses the truth-telling of Aṉangu artists dealing with the effects of secret atomic bomb tests in Australia from 1952-1963.

Image Caption:

Kunmanara Queama, Pitjantjatjara people, SA, b. 1947, Maralinga Lands, SA, d. 2009 Ceduna, SA, and Hilda Moodoo, Pitjantjatjara people, SA, b. 1952, Riverland, SA, Destruction II, 2002, Oak Valley, SA, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 122 × 101.2 cm. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 20025P25, Santos Fund for Aboriginal Art 2002.