Anohni
Courtesy Photo
If you’ve listened to Anohni‘s new album, Hopelessness, then you know that the singer formerly known as the leader of Antony and the Johnsons is in a protest state of mind. Now, she is following up such provocative songs as “Drone Bomb Me” and “Why Did You Separate Me from the Earth?” with a more personal action to raise awareness about a threat to some of her Australian friends.
In an Instagram post on Wednesday (June 1) Anohni announced that she plans to embark on a 110-mile, eight-day trek across the Western Australian desert in support of the indigenous Martu people, who are trying to bring attention to a planned uranium mine that they fear will endanger their community.
“In 2 days time, I am joining my Martu friends Nola and Curtis Taylor, over 100 other people from Parnngurr and neighboring communities, and other supporters from around the country on an 8 day, 180 Km protest walk from their remote community to the site of Mitsubishi and Cameco’s proposed open cart uranium mine in the Western Australian Desert,” Anohni wrote. “The proposed Kintyre mine is on their traditional lands and a threat to their well-being, as well as being gouged out of Karlamilyi National Park.”
Martu activists have said that they fear the mine could endanger or harm the local watershed and permanently disrupt the sanctity of their traditional lands.
As reported by Pitchfork, in 2013 Anohni spent 10 days living with the Martu and has since been an advocate for their causes, donating concert proceeds and discussing them during TV interviews.