In April 2024, communities impacted by uranium mining in the United States and South Africa will come together for a unique health research conference. Over the course of three days, retired miners, community leaders, and public health researchers will discuss community struggles, and identify shared concerns about the health impact of uranium exposure. This conference will build the foundations for community-led transnational health research and health interventions.

The conference critically centers on the experience and expertise of retired miners and Indigenous leaders. These perspectives are rarely included in the early stages of public health research. Their leadership is vital for rigorous research design and impact.

Scientists often travel for research conferences. Community leaders rarely have this opportunity. 6 of the 7 invited South African speakers will take an international flight for the first time to participate in this conference. Our goal is to ensure each of our 7 South African speakers has $1,000 to cover passport and visa fees, local transportation costs, and meals during travel. Any money raised in excess of these costs will be used to supplement modest speakers fees.

More Information

During the Cold War, Native land was heavily mined for uranium. For more than 20 years, health researchers, exposure scientists, and community partners from the Navajo Nation (Diné Bikéyah) and the Pueblo of Laguna (K’awaika) have worked to develop community-led research concerning the health effects of exposure to uranium mines and mine waste. Over time, they have developed community health interventions to reduce exposure as well as research to remediate contaminated land. Now, they are working with South African communities to confront parallel histories of extraction and exposure.

Integrating Lived Experiences of Uranium-Exposed Communities – Documenting Global Perspectives is a community-led conference organized as a response to health concerns and questions raised by retired gold and uranium miners in South Africa. The conference will consist of both scientific and community-driven educational sessions, presentations and talks that allows intergenerational as well as international perspective taking and reflections on uranium exposures, the historical and environmental trauma of living on mine and waste sites, and experiences of fight structural and epistemic racism affecting communities in both contexts. It will be held in Albuquerque, New Mexico in April, 2024.

We are currently in the final rounds of evaluation for an R13 grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). We are organizing this fundraiser to supplement the grant, because it will not cover all of the costs that present barriers to participation. These costs include visa and passport expenses for South African speakers (6 will take their first international flight to attend this conference), as well as food and incidental expenses associated with international travel.  Our goal is to cover all such costs for 7 South African participants. Any money raised in excess of these costs will be used to supplement modest speakers fees.

You can read more about our hosts at the UNM METALS Superfund Research Program and subscribe to their community newsletter here: https://hsc.unm.edu/pharmacy/research/areas/metals/

Our collaborating partners:

The Federation for a Sustainable Environment (FSE) led

by Ms. Mariette Liefferink, CEO and invited Keynote

speaker, is a grassroots South African environmental

protection and policy advocacy group in Gauteng Province.

They take action (including legal action) to hold decision makers accountable (in situations where mining has negative social, economic, and environmental impacts)

and facilitate environmental remediation. Working with the UN Special Rapporteur on Toxics and Human

Rights, they promote functional ecosystems for future generations. They look forward to participating at the

conference, to advance scientific knowledge in Gauteng related to uranium exposure and health impacts.

Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining (ENDAUM), is a Tribal grassroots organization active in the

Navajo Nation Eastern Agency Chapters (NM state side of the Reservation). ENDAUM is a strong advocate for

the protection of the Navajo Nation land and water. Their non-profit organization monitors attempts to license to

mine uranium within the communities and on close by private lands around and of Churchrock and Crownpoint,

New Mexico. They are well-versed in the intervention context and various industrial approaches of uranium

mining. The Eastern Navajo Agency Council along with the Crownpoint, Becenti, Churchrock, and Iyanbito

Chapters have also submitted supporting resolutions for ENDAUM's petition to the Inter-American Commission

on Human Rights (IACHR) and they are very interested in discussions of South African community concerns of

mining waste and miners’ exposures.

The Red Water Pond Road Community Association was formed to protect the Red Water Pond Road Chapter’s community interests due to two mining sites on their Tribal land and the largest waste pile being still unremediated since 1986 in their immediate neighborhood. Each year the Association organizes a

commemoration of the Puerco River spill in 1979 — a disaster that still ranks as one of the largest-ever releases of radioactive waste in the U.S. They are motivated to gather together with the conference’s visiting South African delegation

members.

The Laguna-Acoma Coalition for a Safe Environment (LACSE) is a Pueblo-based community organization

with a long history of participating in national and international gatherings aimed at raising awareness about

the impacts of uranium mining on indigenous people throughout the world. LACSE members from the Pueblo

of Laguna and Acoma Pueblo participated in the 1992 World Uranium Hearings in Salzburg, Austria and the

Indigenous World Uranium Summit in Window Rock, AZ (Navajo Nation) in 2006.  As a core group of the

Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment (MASE), LACSE members are active participants in local and

regional meetings on uranium mining, including Red Water Pond Road Community Association’s annual

commemoration of the 1979 Church Rock Uranium Tailing Spill.  They are ready to discuss how uranium mining had eroded the language and culture of the Pueblo, and disrupted the

community’s sense of place.