CAMPAIGN NEWS:
Pacific Peace Pilgrimage
80 years on from the first of some 300 nuclear explosions conducted in the Pacific, the impact on the fragile ecology of the region and the health and mental well-being of its peoples has been profound and long-lasting. The ‘testing’ on First Nations land in Australia at Maralinga, Emu Field and the Monte Bello Islands, and across the Pacific, including in the Marshall Islands, Kiribati and Mā’ohi Nui (French Occupied Polynesia) has left behind radioactive legacies felt far beyond borders.
This Pacific Peace Pilgrimage will shine a light on the history and intergenerational impacts of nuclear ‘testing’ in the Pacific region, including here in Australia. ICAN Australia is working with The Quakers and the Pacific Conference of Churches to welcome nuclear-impacted communities from the Pacific and Australia for a series of events which will highlight pathways towards nuclear justice in the region and call for a future that is decolonised, demilitarised, denuclearised and decarbonised.
Nuclear detonations in the Pacific: 80 years on
From the beginning of the nuclear age, Pacific islands have been used for the development
and proliferation of nuclear weapons. The plane Enola Gay left the Micronesian island of Tinian to carry the atomic bomb to Hiroshima, Japan, in August 1945. The following year, the United States began testing nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands
On July 1st, it will be 80 years since the first American nuclear detonation in the Marshall Islands. July 2nd will be 60 years since the first French detonation at Moruroa Atoll in Mā’ohi Nui.
Over the next five decades, more than 315 nuclear test explosions were conducted across the region by France, Britain and the United States. Seeking ’empty’ spaces, the Western powers chose to conduct cold war programmes of nuclear ‘testing’ in the deserts of central Australia or the isolated atolls of the central and south Pacific.
The impacts of these detonations and all that followed were catastrophic. But the nuclear threat isn’t only historical. The continued existence of nuclear weapons, that are carried through continents and oceans continue a threat throughout the Pacific.
Join us at one of these events:
July 1: Morning Vigil, Parliament Lawns, Ngunnawal & Ngambri Country / Canberra
Join us to commemorate these significant anniversaries with a candlelight vigil, led in prayer and reflection.
This event is hosted by the Parliamentary Friends of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the Pacific Conference of Churches, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons and the Quakers.
This is a short event, so please aim to be on time.
CLICK HERE TO RSVP TO THE MORNING VIGIL
July 2: Public Event: Quaker Centre, Ngunnawal & Ngambri Country / Canberra
Commemorating the legacy of nuclear detonations in the Pacific: 80 years on
A gathering for nuclear justice in the Pacific – decolonised, demilitarised, denuclearised and decarbonised.
6:00 pm: Candlelight vigil & commemoration – taking solidarity photo
6:30 pm: Shared dinner – more details to come!
7:00 pm: Slideshow and story sharing circle
Special Guests include:
- Mere Tuilau – Fiji Nuclear Veterans and Families Association director.
- Samuel Barton – Student at University of the South Pacific (USP), Suva, and President of the Marshall Islands Student Association.
- Frances Namoumou – Ecumenical Animator – Ecological Stewardship and Climate Justice – Pacific Conference of Churches
- Reverend James Bhagwan – General Secretary of the Pacific Conference of Churches
CLICK HERE TO RSVP TO THE PUBLIC EVENT.
July 3: Public Event, Newtown Neighbourhood Centre, Gadigal Country / Sydney
Commemorating the legacy of nuclear detonations in the Pacific: 80 years on.
A gathering for nuclear justice in the Pacific – decolonised, demilitarised, denuclearised and decarbonised
6:30 pm Shared dinner – more details to come
7:00 pm Slideshow and story sharing circle
Special Guests include:
* Reverend James Bhagwan, Pacific Conference of Churches
* Mere Tuilau, Fiji Nuclear Veterans and Families Association
This event is organised by the Pacific Conference of Churches, The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Greenpeace and the Quakers. With thanks to our co-hosts for supporting!
July 3: Public Event, Balam Balam Place, Wurundjeri Country / Melbourne
Commemorating the legacy of nuclear detonations in the Pacific: 80 years on.
A gathering for nuclear justice in the Pacific – decolonised, demilitarised, denuclearised and decarbonised
6:30 pm Shared dinner – more details to come!
7:00 pm Slideshow and story sharing circle
Special Guests include:
* Samuel Barton, President of the Marshall Islands Student Association
* Frances Namoumou, Pacific Conference of Churches.
Accessibility: Both the South Building and the House are wheelchair accessible via lift. Wide corridors and accessible toilets are situated on each level. The grounds are entirely accessible via flat concrete paths and ramps.
CLICK HERE TO RSVP TO THE PUBLIC EVENT
Pacific Peace Pilgrims
Rev. James Bhagwan is an ordained minister, writer, preacher and regional advocate. His work is shaped by the Pacific’s experience of colonialism, militarisation and environmental harm.
Nuclear justice is a long-standing concern of the Pacific churches. Rev. Bhagwan’s advocacy is rooted in solidarity with communities affected by nuclear testing and militarisation across Oceania, including Mā‘ohi Nui/French Polynesia, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati and Indigenous communities in Australia. For him, nuclear harm is not only a political or security issue, but a spiritual, ecological and human one — touching land, ocean, health, memory, truth-telling and future generations.
Merewalesi Tuilau is a rights activist, facilitator and a leader from Fiji. Her advocacy on self-determination, nuclear, and ocean issues comes from over 10 years of engagement with Pacific agencies and governments within regional civil society organisations, movements and International.
Merewalesi’s passion in people as stewards of the vast Pacific Ocean is a testament of our call to safeguard, guide and determine our destiny, and to navigate our narratives until we the people of Oceania are fully free. Merewalesi serves as United Liberation Movement for West Papua Fiji Head of Mission and is an expert for Nuclear Weapons with ICAN International for Fiji Veterans and Families Association.
Samuel Barton is the President of the Marshall Islands Student Association (MISA), at the University of the South Pacific (USP) in Fiji, where he is in his final year studying law. Samuel was a lead organiser of the Nuclear Victims Remembrance Day event at University of the South Pacific this year.
Frances Namoumou is a Pacific climate justice advocate, a Methodist, and an Indigenous Fijian (i-taukei) woman whose work bridges faith, gender justice, peacebuilding, and ecological stewardship across local, regional, and global spaces. As Ecumenical Animator for the Ecological Stewardship and Climate Justice Programme of the Pacific Conference of Churches, she accompanies churches and communities across Oceania as they respond to the interconnected challenges of climate change, displacement, biodiversity loss, gender inequality, and the pursuit of a just and peaceful transition.
Australian Survivors in Solidarity
Karina Lester is a Yankunytjatjara Anangu woman from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands (APY Lands) in the far northwest of South Australia. Karina grew up in the remote community of Mimili in the beautiful Everard Ranges with her father’s people and is determined to keep her language alive for future generations.
Karina is a senior Aboriginal language worker, an ICAN Ambassador and a prominent nuclear free advocate, sharing not only her late father’s (Yami Lester) story but her grandmother’s story of the impacts of the British Nuclear Tests in the 1950’s – 1960’s on people and country. Karina participated in the negotiating conference for the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in 2017, has attended two out of three meetings of states parties to the TPNW and has toured Australia on several speaking tours. She has played a leading role in campaigns to prevent international nuclear waste storage in South Australia.
Maxine Goodwin is the daughter of an Australin nuclear veteran. In 1952, Maxine’s father, a Royal Australian Air Force radio technician, was deployed to Onslow, Western Australia, for Operation Hurricane—the first British atomic test in Australia. He was responsible for servicing Dakota aircraft tasked with coastal security monitoring. He later recalled being onboard an aircraft that detected intense radioactivity the day after the detonation.
Maxine has spent more than twenty years researching her father’s story and has contributed to arts projects highlighting the experiences of nuclear test veterans and their families. In 2023, she joined an ICAN delegation to Canberra to highlight the harms caused by nuclear weapons testing and urge the Prime Minister to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). In July 2025, Maxine visited the Montebello Islands and Onslow, Western Australia, with a group of artists, writers, researchers and other nuclear descendants to explore the legacies of nuclear testing firsthand.