Event

HCV Book+Author: Contaminated Country – June 2026

Jessica Urwin

In the third Book+Author event of 2026, Dr Yves Rees will be talking to author and historian Jessica Uriwn about her newest book, Contaminated Country: Nuclear Colonialism and Aboriginal Resistance in Australia.

During the twentieth century Australia was embroiled in the military and civilian nuclear programs of numerous global powers. From uranium extraction to weapons testing, Australia’s lands became sites of imperial exploitation under the guise of national development and was subject to rampant nuclear colonialism. Aboriginal communities, bearing the brunt of these processes, persistently resisted, reclaiming their rights to Country and demanding reparations.

As Jessica Urwin shows, extraction, testing and waste disposal have caused incalculable physical, spiritual, and cultural harm to Aboriginal communities and lands. Tracking the colonial mechanisms Australia used to pursue nuclear industry, Urwin simultaneously highlights how Aboriginal peoples rejected and reshaped those same mechanisms. Contaminated Country reveals how Australia’s nuclear past has been entangled with colonialism locally, nationally, and internationally.

Jessica Urwin is a Lecturer in Environmental History at the University of Tasmania and her work has received numerous awards, including the American Society for Environmental History’s Rachel Carson Prize, Australian National University’s John Molony Prize for History, and Australian Academy of Science’s Moran Award for History of Science Research.

About Book+Author

Curated and hosted by Dr Yves Rees, the Book+Author series showcases new books from some of Australia’s most exciting historians.

The 2026 series (4 events) is presented at Bard’s Apothecary. This atmospheric downstairs bar is a wonderful CBD venue for intimate literary and cultural events. (We regret that the venue is not wheelchair accessible.) Grab a drink at the bar before or after the event to make the most of your night! The event space will open at 5.30, half an hour before the scheduled conversation.

These events are free for Friends of the HCV, who receive access to a priority booking period. General public are welcome to purchase tickets for remaining places.

Event Report

Thank you to all those who attended our sold out Book+Author talk last Thursday at Bard’s Apothecary! In a full room, convener Dr Yves Rees spoke to Dr Jess Urwin (University of Tasmania) about her newly published book Contaminated Country: Nuclear Colonialism and Aboriginal Resistance in Australia (Melbourne University Publishing).

Jess became interested in the intersections between nuclear weapons and colonial structures while studying International Relations, eventually moving into the field of history to complete her doctoral studies. Contaminated Country explores how settler mythologies of the desert as empty and hostile to ‘civilised’ life, and colonial narratives of scientific progress, were used to justify the use of First People’s lands for nuclear testing.

The hope with the book, said Jess, is that contemporary debates about nuclear mining and testing be given historical context instead of existing only in the present.

Jess answered questions from an engaged audience about Indigenous people’s responses to the testing, narratives of the events adopted by political leaders in subsequent decades, and Australia’s defence ties to Britain at the time.