This new film, ‘Fight for Country: The story of the Jabiluka blockade’, is a welcome reminder of the powerful campaign in the late-1990s to stop the Jabiluka uranium mine in the Northern Territory.

The film begins with a 12-minute prologue titled An Unparalleled Catastrophe, covering the environmental and safety risks associated with the nuclear fuel cycle and nuclear weapons production. It's excellent, providing accurate and alarming summaries of the risks posed by uranium mining, processing and enrichment, nuclear reactors (illustrated by the Chernobyl disaster), spent fuel reprocessing (illustrated by Sellafield in the UK), and nuclear weapons production (illustrated by appalling radioactive pollution in former Soviet countries).

There are a couple of minor slips in the prologue (though I'd still rate it 10 out of 10). The discussion on nuclear weapons overlooks the use of highly-enriched uranium as fissile material as an alternative to plutonium. Reprocessing is described as a technology to allow reuse of uranium extracted from spent fuel - true, but it’s worth noting that there’s no need or demand for the extracted uranium, much of which is stockpiled. Plutonium extracted from spent fuel is even more useless and dangerous. Reprocessing is useless, highly polluting, and it’s no coincidence that the two major isotopes extracted are the two main types of fissile material used in nuclear weapons. This insanity is driven by military interests, commercial nuclear interests, and by the need for the commercial industry to maintain the fiction that spent fuel can be - and is being - dealt with.

The main part of Fight for Country deals with the campaign against the Jabiluka uranium mine. It's a kaleidoscope of colour, people, protest, police, animated graphics, footage of the spectacular Kakadu region, and music.

We see the blockade of the Jabiluka mine site, which attracted 5000 people and led to almost 600 arrests. We see the senior Mirrar traditional owner, Yvonne Margarula, being arrested for 'trespassing' on Mirrar land along with Jacqui Katona and Christine Chistophersen from the Gundjehmi Aboriginal Corporation (which represents the Mirrar).

The film also covers the blockade in Melbourne of North Ltd., the parent of Jabiluka mining company Energy Resources of Australia (ERA). Apart from the blockade at the mine site and the blockade of North Ltd., the film only briefly covers the many activities - such as the protest marches attracting many thousands of people - organised by the network of Jabiluka Action Groups which sprung up around the country in 1998.

The film offers quite a few laughs. An idiot policeman pulling faces at the North Ltd. blockade in Melbourne. An impromptu debate between Katona and Gary Foley (Gundjehmi's man in Melbourne) about the support for the campaign from Bono of U2 fame. "He's just a fucking rock-and-roll singer and not a real good one at that. He's a spoilt brat fucking too-rich rock-and-roll singer. He don't give a fuck except for his own fucking image", Foley opines. Melbourne JAG activists will be shocked to hear such language from Foley.

The film touches on the broader issue of Aboriginal dispossession. Katona says: "What the [1976 federal] Land Rights Act has done is provide access ... to mining. That it what the Aboriginal Land Rights Act is about, that is what the Native Title Act is about. These Acts, held up to be some sort of recognition of rights, are in fact only there to provide certainty to industry and to ensure the containment of any Aboriginal decision-making in relation to land. They are offensive and they require reform.

"It's a very unfortunate evaluation where Aboriginal people still experience Third World conditions, are marginalised by large developments and find themselves having their cultural rights eroded. These are the issues which are integral to the Mirrar's campaign to stop Jabiluka."

The Mirrar does have a little leverage, however. Using a provision of a 1992 deed of transfer, they have been able to block ERA's plan to use the mill at Ranger to process uranium from Jabiluka. ERA has the 'right' to build a mill at Jabiluka but this would cost $150-200 million.

The Mirrar also won a minor concession during the battle to get Kakadu National Park listed as 'world heritage in danger' as a result of the predicted impacts of the Jabiluka mine. The Australian government and ERA agreed to limit mining from Jabiluka while the Ranger mine is still in operation (for another decade or so). That deal was struck in 1999, at which time ERA still planned to begin mining at Jabiluka in 2001. However, there has been no work at the mine site since September 1999.

So we have a stalemate - a pretty good outcome given that ERA was determined to proceed with the project and was supported by federal politicians and bureaucrats more than willing to rubber-stamp sham environmental 'studies' prepared by ERA, to lie, to dispossess the Mirrar and pollute their land, and to spend over $1 million of public funds lobbying (and undermining) the World Heritage Committee.

Last year Rio Tinto bought North Ltd. and thus acquired a 68% stake in ERA. Rio Tinto seems unlikely to proceed with the Jabiluka mine in the near future, one reason being the all-time low uranium prices.

A low-level campaign is being waged to get Rio Tinto to return the Jabiluka mineral lease to the Mirrar. However, Rio Tinto seems more inclined to sell ERA, as it tried (but failed) to do last year. This issue is significant because any company prepared to buy ERA would be doing so in the expectation of pushing ahead with the Jabiluka mine.

Under the Land Rights Act, ERA can revisit the Mirrar's veto over the use of the Ranger mill to process Jabiluka ore every five years - in late 2004, again in late 2009, and so on. It is expected that the company will use both carrot and stick to obtain Mirrar consent.

The Mirrar's opposition to uranium mining is strong, but to be in the gun-sight of ERA and Rio Tinto for years or decades to come is an appalling situation. The fight for country is far from over, and this film will be a valuable resource as the fight unfolds.