HUNDREDS of people are expected to turn out in Tennant Creek on Saturday to rally against the proposed nuclear waste dump at Muckaty.

Natalie Wasley from the Beyond Nuclear Initiative said the people the Federal Government are attempting to silence with draconian new legislation would turn out to voice their opposition.

“Muckaty traditional owners and Barkly residents are extremely disappointed that a Senate Committee currently considering radioacive waste legislation will not sit in Tennant Creek,” she said.

“A community banner will be signed at the rally and taken to the Senate Inquiry hearing in Darwin on April 12, in lieu of most people being able to attend in person.

“The opposition of Muckaty traditional owners, the NT Government, local pastoralists, NT Trade Unions and Barkly residents will be loud and clear this weekend.

“This opposition will be sustained and strengthened if the Federal Government continues to try and force a waste dump on Muckaty.”

The Senate Inquiry into the National Radioactive Waste Management Bill 2010 sat in Canberra on Tuesday and will also meet in Darwin this month.

Headed by Senator Double Crossin, the inquiry heard from several contributors including the Northern Land Council, Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Dr James Prest, the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Public Health Association of Australia.

Ngapa traditional owner, Amy Lauder, who initially suggested the nomination of Muckaty, said she believed the nuclear waste dump would help her people build a better life for their children.

However Australian National University researcher, Dr James Prest, described the legislation as ‘ambiguous’. He said future land owners may have little or no say over how the nuclear waste facility would be managed.

“There is no legal mechanism created in terms of a person who would represent the rights of future generations,” Dr Prest said.

This week the Northern Land Council (NLC) shouted a group of Muckaty traditional owners to Sydney where they toured the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor and called in media for a photo opportunity.

However, back in Tennant Creek, another Muckaty traditional owner accused the NLC of separating owners just for the money and said the government wasn’t hearing the whole story.

She said the NLC was representing just one out of five family groups so the nuclear dump deal could proceed.

Pamela Brown from the Milwayi group said documented stories have been altered and a handmade map had been presented to the government.

“[The government] should know that culture and dreamings never change, they stay the same,” she said.

“If they come and talk to us we will show them that we have a map as well that says we still belong to Muckaty.

“The NLC should be helping everybody who is saying no.

“All the elders who first went through the Muckaty Land Claim fought hard to get the land back.

“The stories the elders put in the land claim book should stay like that and never be changed.”

Ms Brown challenged the Ngapa group, NLC and government representatives to meet with other family groups at Muckaty.

“That way we can see who are the right people and prove it culturally,” she said.