About the Project

Nearly 47 years after the Church Rock uranium mill spill — the largest release of radioactive waste in U.S. history — many Indigenous communities across the Southwest are still living with the environmental and health impacts of uranium extraction while continuing to fight for adequate cleanup, accountability, and long-term remediation.

At the same time, new uranium projects and exploratory drilling proposals across New Mexico signal a renewed cycle of extraction. Areas such as Mount Taylor and Canjilon are once again facing the expansion of uranium-related activity, raising concerns about water contamination, transportation routes, public health, and environmental justice across the region.

Uranium mined in the Southwest has historically fueled both nuclear weapons production and nuclear energy, linking local landscapes directly to national and global systems of power. The impacts of uranium mining are not confined to their sites of mining, milling, enrichment, fabrication or nuclear power — they move through ecological pathways of water and air, infrastructures of transportation corridors, human systems of mining labor, and our culture over time through intergenerational memory.

The Anti-Uranium Mapping Project is an Indigenous-led initiative that combines documentary photography, oral history, mapping, and community education to examine the ongoing impacts of uranium mining across the Southwest.

Founded by photographer and interdisciplinary artist Shayla Blatchford, the project works alongside Indigenous and frontline communities to document environmental contamination, preserve lived experience, and create accessible tools for understanding the legacy and ongoing presence of uranium extraction on Indigenous lands.

For a deeper dive, head over to the website: https://www.antiuraniummappingproject.com/

Anti-Uranium Mapping Project Fundraiser

Join us at 7k Studios for an evening of anticolonial mapping, live music, DJ sets, and community building in support of uranium based education in the Southwest.

Team Members