Eileen Kampakuta Brown

Australian Aboriginal Elder
Winner of the 2003 Goldman Environmental Prize
1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005

birthdate: ?
birthplace: Australia

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When the Australian government announced plans to dump nuclear waste in Australia's wild desert lands, Aboriginal women elders who lived in the region were upset. They and their communities had already endured fifty years of government-sanctioned contamination from nuclear weapons testing and uranium mining. In 1995 they gathered other elders and created the Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta Cooper Pedy Women's Council or Kungka Tju to advocate for the protection of their land. They traveled across Australia and around the world to gain support for their cause and in 2004 were victorious -- the Australian government abandoned its plans to create a radioactive dump in the area. Two of the elders, Eileen Kampakuta Brown and Eileen Wani Wingfield received the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2002, and the entire Kungka Tju was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 as part of the 1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize project.