Nuclear colonialism is a uniquely 20th-century form of imperialism. It destroyed countless lives and cultures, permanently displaced people and traditions, and launched an endless desire for the development and testing of weapons with ever-increasing destructive capabilities. Its most lasting consequences, however, persist in the DNA and lands of its Indigenous victims. In the decades since the first nuclear detonation in 1945, Indigenous peoples around the world have been disproportionately affected by the intergenerational trauma of the atomic blasts – their lands repeatedly colonised, irradiated and abandoned. As remediation and repatriation of nuclear landscapes increase, an important question emerges: is a land poisoned by atomic blasts still the land it once was?