The Anti-Uranium Mapping Project is an interactive audio/visual storytelling exhibition and website designed to create an efficient way to educate audiences about the environmental issues of uranium mining on the Navajo Nation and surrounding lands. The various components of the project provide an immersive multimodal learning experience. This project serves as both historical documentation of the uranium mining era as well as a platform for storytelling and community building. My goal is to bring people together from different backgrounds who have all been affected by uranium mining and to share their experience on the issue through photographs and video interviews. As the demand for uranium increases with nuclear power being pitched to the world as the next “clean energy” solution, old sites of uranium mining could be resurrected. Bringing different perspectives to the conversation provides access to the information needed to make an educated decision about the future of uranium mining and other extractive practices.
Not everyone has the same learning style; I want to be able to reach as many people as possible. If enough people can be educated, I envision not just conversation, but bold action in support of how the Navajo People decide to produce clean energy, how they choose to access natural resources on their land, and how that could influence and inspire the rest of us.
Shayla Blatchford, One mile lies between the Red Water Pond Road Community and the United Nuclear Corporation’s Church Rock Uranium Mill
Red Water Pond Road Community leader, Larry King, addresses current plans to relocate the Quivera Mine Waste Pile that is located about 1,000 feet from the closest residence
Local residents gather with Red Water Pond Road Community to speak up against uranium mining at the old Church Rock Uranium Mill during the 44th annual Uranium Tailings Spill Commemoration
Leona Morgan, community organizer and anti-nuclear activist, explains how the EPA is working to relocate the Quivera Mine Waste Pile
Outside, wind rips through the land where 94 million gallons of uranium spilled into the soil 44 years ago and remediation is never fully complete
About the artist
Growing up in Long Beach, California, Shayla Blatchford had little exposure to her Native heritage; this sparked a curiosity that continues to propel her work today. Her mother’s genealogical investigation was a launching pad that started Blatchford’s journey to establish a connection with her ancestors and their ways of life. Often, we don’t know how to share our stories. It can be difficult to take a vision from paper to finished project. Blatchford has the ability to help people tell their stories and believes providing that service is a way to share instances of beauty with the world. Photography is about capturing moments. It is about seeing the smallness in the bigness of the world. Blatchford wants to subtly craft these moments into art while allowing her images to foreground the voices of her subjects over her own.
Additional resources
- https://www.shaylablatchford.com/
- https://www.instagram.com/shaylablatchford/
- https://www.epa.gov/navajo-nation-uranium-cleanup/northeast-church-rock-mine
- https://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/decommissioning/uranium/united-nuclear-corporation.html
- https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/01/13/2023-00273/united-nuclear-corporation-church-rock-uranium-mill-site
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1963288/
- https://sourcenm.com/2021/10/22/navajo-nation-pushes-for-radioactive-waste-remnants-to-be-fully-removed/