This week we wander through the Women on the Line archives, revisiting our show's coverage of the Women for Survival movement that emerged from the historic Pine Gap Women's Peace Camp in 1983.

Through archival recordings from 1986 and 1987, we hear women on the airwaves document the feminist, anti-nuclear, and anti-militarist movements of the time, tracing connections between women's resistance, refusal and renewal and alternatives to patriarchal colonial power. The women's movement of the time connected with and joined First Nations struggles for land back, and opposition to US military and imperial power on this continent.

We hear audio from the 1986 protests against Pine Gap in Canberra and Naarm/Melbourne and the 1987 protest outside Pine Gap in Mparntwe/Alice Springs. More than 600 people gathered at the gates to hear from Arrente, other Aboriginal people and peace activists from around the world give speeches on October 19, 1987. Police arrested 98 people for entering the base that day. A group of 10 grandparents, including Wiradjuri activist Mum Shirl, were arrested the following day during another attempt to deliver the eviction notice.

Forty years on, as we heard in our September episode documenting the Pine Gap Convergence 2026, these struggles remain strong today, as movements continue to organise against the militarisation of First Nations lands and the ongoing operations of Pine Gap.

*Listeners are advised that this episode includes the voice of Wiradjuri legend Mum Shirl, who has passed.