Karina Lester and June Lennon are still affected by the fallout from British nuclear tests on their country 70 years later.
The two First Nations women are part of a delegation of atomic survivors and relatives, which includes veterans, visiting Canberra to call on the government to sign an international treaty to ban nuclear weapons.
"We still see the craters and the scars that were left by those weapons tests, both at Emu Field and also at Maralinga Tjarutja," Ms Lester, a Yankunytjatjara Anangu woman from north-west South Australia, said.
Greens Senator Jordon Steele-John and Labor MP Josh Wilson co-chair the Parliamentary Friends of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which heard from the delegation on Wednesday.
"It was so powerful to hear the stories of lived experience and direct connection to the impacts of nuclear testing," Senator Steele-John said.
"That makes it viscerally real and really brings home the urgent need to eliminate nuclear weapons."
Ms Lester's father, the late Yami Lester, went blind as a young man after the British tested atomic weapons in Emu Field.
"The scars are still felt on our country," she said.
"And the scars are still evident on our people."
The group of Australian atomic survivors and relatives are calling on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
In 1953 the British initiated a program of nuclear testing in Australia at the Montebello Islands, off the coast of WA and in Emu Field in South Australia.
Two years later, the British government announced a larger site for the tests at Maralinga.
In October 1953 when the British detonated the Totem I and II nuclear bombs at Emu Field, Yankunytjatjara, Antikarinya and Pitjantjatjara woman June Lennon was only a few months old.
Her family witnessed the tests and have suffered from ill-health since.
"The government didn't tell the truth about the nuclear testing program," she said.
Ms Lester said it was important all Australians understood the stories of the British atomic tests.
"This is our truth telling, about the impacts felt by my people, Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara, the contamination of our traditional lands, the hurt and pain and suffering still felt to this day," she said.
The parliamentary friends co-chairs said in a statement the truth about the tests and their impacts was covered up for decades.
"We should never forget that Ms Lennon's family and First Nations people were treated abysmally in this matter - given no proper warning or protection, let alone consultation and prior informed consent in relation to the profoundly harmful and toxic use of their country," they said.
"There is no disputing the fact that the British and Australian governments were utterly careless in their consideration of Aboriginal people."
The delegation also met Foreign Minister Penny Wong.
A spokesperson for Senator Wong said the government would consider the nuclear weapons treaty "as a part of our ambitious agenda to advance nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament".
The delegation will be in Canberra until Thursday to meet more parliamentarians and speak at an event hosted by the Parliamentary Friends of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Australian Associated Press
