The History Council of Victoria’s third Book+Author event for 2026 is with AANZEN member Jess Urwin, in conversation with Yves Rees about her new book Contaminated Country: Nuclear Colonialism and Aboriginal Resistance in Australia.

As author Jess Urwin explores, extraction, testing and waste disposal have caused incalculable physical, spiritual, and cultural harm to Aboriginal communities and lands. Tracking the colonial mechanisms Australia used to pursue nuclear industry, Urwin simultaneously highlights how Aboriginal peoples rejected and reshaped those same mechanisms. Contaminated Country reveals how Australia’s nuclear past has been entangled with colonialism locally, nationally, and internationally.

The event will be held at Melbourne’s Bard’s Apothecary on Thursday 25 June, 6-7pm. The event is free for Friends of the HCV, or $10 for members of the general public. For more information, click here, or buy your tickets here.