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Absolutely Revolting
Indigenous Australia

Ugly legacy

The role of nuclear in colonialism
by Harrison Croft •
August 2025, no. 478

Contaminated Country: Nuclear colonialism and Aboriginal resistance in Australia by Jessica Urwin

University of Washington Press, US$110 hb, 296 pp

ABR receives a commission on items purchased through this link. All ABR reviews are fully independent.

The Coalition was keen to spruik a nuclear future in Australia’s most recent federal election campaign. Conspicuous in its absence was a reckoning with Australia’s nuclear past. In Contaminated Country: Nuclear colonialism and Aboriginal resistance in Australia, environmental historian Jessica Urwin rightly puts that ugly legacy back in our minds.

 


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Contaminated Country

Contaminated Country: Nuclear colonialism and Aboriginal resistance in Australia by Jessica Urwin

University of Washington Press, US$110 hb, 296 pp

ABR receives a commission on items purchased through this link. All ABR reviews are fully independent.

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