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Hadley Austin | USA | 2023
Documentarian filmmaker Hadley Austin, whose primary work deals with historical research, social justice, and the natural world, presents her feature debut DEMON MINERAL. Her story explains the legacy of uranium mining in the Navajo Nation in the American Southwest. Utah Diné Bikéyah, a nonprofit organization that works toward the healing of people by supporting indigenous communities, advocates for the people of the Navajo Nation who have been threatened by contamination for the last four generations in their water, air, traditions, livestock, and livelihood.
Austin’s documentary is about life in the radioactive desert of the Navajo Nation in the American Southwest. There are over 500 uranium mines spread throughout the sacred homelands of the Navajo Nation landscape. Austin shares the research of a group of indigenous scientists, engineers, and activists working to figure out how to live appropriately within, cleanup, and now protect the polluted land that’s been in their families for decades.
Austin shares, “Legend has it that some inhabitants of the land believe that there is a demon who lives in the earth. He is content enough there, and will bother no one unless disturbed, having been laid there by a formidable warrior. Uranium, for millions of years to come, is perhaps the demon made real.” DEMON MINERAL interviews several experts on uranium pollution, water activists, and the local inhabitants, all of whom are part of Utah Diné Bikéyah, except for the United States Secretary of the Interior Deb Halaand.
Austin is compelled to address the uranium issues that strike her people and with full fervor to follow Dr. Tommy Rock, a Navajo scientist, who has spent his life working in uranium contamination cleanup. Her film travels with Dr. Rock to various sites of current contamination but most disheartening is the visit with the Ladies of Red Water Pond Road who live in the aftermath of the 1979 Church Rock Mine Spill. To this day it is the largest radioactive spill in U.S.History.
What’s at stake here Austin declares is that the U.S. Natural Resources Subcommittee will soon vote whether to declare uranium a “critical mineral,” removing many environmental considerations from prospecting, and therefore, encouraging new mining on the edges of the Navajo Nation. Austin’s informational documentary highlights it is vital for us to stand as “one nation” against powers that be willing to contaminate our land and it’s natural resources given to us to protect from a higher source. A duty we all need to adhere to!