Traditional owners and international protesters have begun a month-long, 250 km walk against uranium mining in Western Australia.
Their march comes less than a month after federal environmental approval was given for what could become the state's first uranium mine near Wiluna in the Goldfields region, in the state's south-east.
But there are other traditional owners who are in favour of uranium mining and can't wait for it to begin in their lands.
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Ryan Emery reports.
"(Chanting): Wandi Uranium. Leave it in the ground."
Marching along the red dirt in the Goldfields of Western Australia, a group of protesters, and traditional owners from the Wongatha people demonstrate their opposition to uranium mining in the resource-rich state.
They are walking from Yeelirrie, home to the state's biggest known uranium deposit, to Leonora more than 250 kilometres away.
It will take them most of the month.
It's the third time the Walkajurra Walkabout has been held, but the protesters say it's taken on a new urgency with federal environmental approval being granted to what could be the state's first uranium mine near Wiluna, owned by Toro Energy.
Marcus Atkinson is from the Anti-Nuclear Alliance of Western Australia.
"That has definitely brought more people out here. It's created a lot more urgency in the campaign. There's still a long way to go, there's 36 conditions that (federal Environment Minister) Tony Burke has put on Toro's project, but there's also major financial hurdles that this company has to jump because they've got no money. This is their first project; they're a new project."
The march has attracted more than 60 people including a handful of international protesters.
One of them is Mika Kamijo - a Japanese woman who has been teaching the other protesters how to make paper cranes.
"Ah, beautiful. Well done. This is my first peace crane."
Mika Kamijo plans to take the cranes back to Japan as symbols of opposition to nuclear power and uranium mining.
"In Japanese traditional, we say if we make 1000, one wish will come true, so I will make this with people, the walkers here, then hopefully make 1000 and I will bring this back to Japan and there's another group walking through all the nuclear protestation in Japan to Hiroshima so hopefully I will join that walk to carry this, like everyone's prayers to Hiroshima."
From France, 20-year-old Nina Besana has made the trip to the central desert to continue her protest against nuclear power.
"So in France, it's a big problem because it's the most nuclearised country in the world, we have the most nuclear central per person and we have a lot of radioactive waste so that's really big problems because they don't know how to, what to do with the waste. They have some projects, but it's totally irresponsible and it's really big issue, even the government, scientists don't know how to deal with that.
The protesters are being guided by rangers and elders from the Wongatha people along their march to Leonora.
Elder Kado Muir says the walk is more than just a protest against uranium mining.
"By walking on our land, we're establishing our authority, demonstrating that it is our country and it's basically in the footsteps of our ancestors and as our ancestors walked across the land, across their territory, that's what we're doing as well."
Mr Muir says the walk is also a test run for operating eco-tourism businesses in the region, which is a day's drive north east of Perth.
"This whole talking about the importance of mining to remote communities is a nonsense. The real economy in these remote communities will be those service-based economies. You've got a billion dollars worth of business, inbound tourism, coming into Australia and 80 per cent of them don't have an Aboriginal experience and they actually want that. So you're potentially talking about 800 million dollars of money going into Aboriginal tourism enterprises across Australia."
But there are other traditional owners in Western Australia who see mining, particularly uranium mining, as a way out of the severe unemployment and poor living conditions of their people.
In an area of Martu country, more than 1000 kilometres north of Yeelirrie, the 2400-strong community has accepted uranium mining at the Kintyre deposit and has signed an agreement with the deposit's owners Cameco.
The Canadian miner took 14 Martu people, including elders, to see its uranium mines in Saskatchewan two years ago.
Martu elder Brian Samson says he was convinced uranium mining could be done safely and there would be employment and training for his people.
"People need to understand that Indigenous people in Australia are the most unemployed people in our own country and we've been unemployed for the last 50 years we've been working for somebody else. We want to be able to create something with any industry in regards to jobs, real jobs, for our people and better infrastructure within the communities nearby.
The Western Desert Aboriginal Land Corporation represents the interests of the Martu people and when Cameco came calling, the corporation put them on notice they wanted all the facts about uranium mining.
Noel Whitehead heads the Aboriginal Corporation and says it also hired its own consultant to travel to all the Martu communities to teach the people about the risks of uranium mining.
"That provided an opportunity for Martu to indicate whether they had any problems and people raised problems: they were concerned about dust, they were concerned about radiation, they were concerned about the impact on their water table. Those sort of matters were fully debated in a very open and very frank way and there was a very clear understanding that we put to the company that we were not in the business of trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes."
Cameco managing director Brian Reilly says his company accepted it had to convince the traditional owners.
"Don't listen to what we say, but observe what we do and over 30 years of track record in northern Saskatchewan with local indigenous groups, I think, has shown well our commitment to indigenous people, our respect for culture, heritage, our track record on the environment and at the end of the day, I believe the Martu people left with that sentiment."
Another uranium company that is taking a leaf out of Cameco's book is Toro Energy.
It looks like it will start the state's first uranium mine after it was granted environmental approval for its Wiluna project last month by federal Environment Minister Tony Burke.
Its deposit is 50 kilometres up the road from Yeelirrie where the protesters started their march.
The company took the area's traditional owners from the Wiluna Native Title Claim to South Australia to see the Beverley uranium mine for themselves.
Darren Farmer is one of the Native Title claimants and says the company has been the best mining company they've dealt with, but ...
"We haven't given the company a go-ahead yet. We've been negotiating with them around those important issues and that's the protecting of all our cultural sites. We haven't yet negotiated a mining agreement with them yet. That's going to be the next stage before we even agree to any mining."
Toro Energy managing director Vanessa Guthrie is optimistic the Wiluna people will agree to the mine and they're hoping to be in production by 2015.
"We've provided over four years independent advice from radiation experts, environmental experts, to them so that they could, and these are people that they have chosen to help explain both radiation management and environmental management on the ground and as a consequence we are now negotiating with them that they are able to, under our agreement, monitor our performance on the ground as we go."
As for Yeelirrie though - Wongatha elder Kado Muir is steadfast uranium mining will not happen in his people's lands.
The deposit is actually owned by Cameco, which has had success with the traditional owners for its Kintyre deposit, but which is still years away from becoming a uranium mine.
Kado Muir has met with Cameco and will again, but the company may be wasting its time.
"They might be nice people, I'm sure they are, but there's a line that's drawn and the line is no mining of uranium."
