Yami Lester: Aboriginal activist, elder and nuclear campaigner dies aged 75
Updated
Aboriginal elder and activist Yami Lester has died in Alice Springs aged 75.
Mr Lester suffered vision impairment after being blinded by a nuclear test bomb that blew though his homelands in the far north of South Australia during the 1950s.
He spent his early years working on pastoral properties across South Australia, until losing his eyesight as a teenager and becoming completely blind — a consequence of dust from the nuclear bomb.
His family said his death "leaves an incredible legacy of better global understanding of the devastation of nuclear bombs and for the ongoing battle for recognition for the consequence of them".
Speaking to ABC Rural 2011, Mr Lester recalled his experience with clarity.
"I was a kid," he said.
"I got up early in the morning, about 7:00am, playing with a homemade toy.
"We heard the big bomb went off that morning, a loud noise and the ground shook.
"I don't know how long after we seen this quiet black smoke — oily and shiny — coming across from the south.
"Next time we had sore eyes, skin rash, diarrhea and vomiting everybody, old people too."
His family said his local, national and international campaign for the clean up of Maralinga after the British nuclear testing of the 1950s and 60s was his life's work.
Mr Lester campaigned for the rights of Aboriginal people who were in the area at the time, leading to the establishment of the McClelland Royal Commission.
The commission went on to recommend group compensation for Maralinga's Tjarutja people and the clean up of Uranium contamination on Tjarutja lands.
He was also a staunch land rights activist in the handback of Anangu Pitjantjatjara (APY Lands) to traditional owners in 1985, and central to the return of Uluru to traditional owners.
Lester a highly intelligent man of great foresight: Snowdon
Member for Lingiari Warren Snowdon said he had a 40-year friendship with Mr Lester and saw him as a force for great good.
"He's a funny man, highly intelligent, motivated, a fighter of great renowned and a person despite his own issues with vision, had foresight greater than many other people that I've ever known", he said.
South Australia's Aboriginal Affairs Minister Kyam Maher said Mr Lester's activism and resilience had left a strong legacy for future generations.
"My thoughts are with his family, who carry on his work of activism, standing up for the rights and views of Anangu and preserving culture and language," he said.
The State Government said it had offered Mr Lester's family support and was consulting with them to determine their wishes for a memorial service to recognise his contribution to South Australia.
Mr Lester retired to his traditional land at Walatina Station near Marla in the far north of South Australia, which will be his final resting place.
Topics: indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, nuclear-accident, disasters-and-accidents, nt
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