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Amelia Telford is a Bundjalung and South Sea Islander woman and climate activist who co-founded Australia's first Indigenous-led environment organisation, Seed Mob, in 2020. [1]. The organisation began with 250 Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander youth volunteers aged 15 to 35 from various locations around Australia.
FROM SMH RE SEED: It started in 2014 after 50 young Aboriginal people from all over Australia came together at a summit and decided the climate movement was not a space where Aboriginal people felt supported, and they wanted self-determination.
SIC Amelia is passionate about supporting a national grassroots network of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people to protect country from the impacts of fossil fuel extraction and climate change, and to be part of creating positive change for young indigenous people. She’s been awarded 2014 National NAIDOC Youth of the year, Bob Brown’s Young Environmentalist of the Year 2015, and Australian Geographic Young Conservationist of the Year 2015, all for her commitment to building a just and sustainable future for all young people.
SIC - source: https://www.abc.net.au/qanda/amelia-telford/13584156 National Director of the Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Network
Amelia Telford is a Bundjalung and South Sea Islander woman and the National Director of the Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Network.
In this work, Amelia supports a national network of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people building a movement to protect country, culture and communities from the causes and impacts of climate change.
Amelia was awarded National NAIDOC Youth of Year in 2014, Bob Brown's Young Environmentalist for the Year 2015 and Australian Geographic Young Conservationist of the Year 2015 for her commitment to building a more just and sustainable future for all young people.
SIC - SOURCE
https://www.naidoc.org.au/awards/winner-profiles/amelia-telford
Amelia Telford 2014 Youth of the Year Amelia Telford is a Bundjalung woman originating from Northern New South Wales. Amelia currently works in Melbourne as the Indigenous Coordinator for the Australian Youth Climate Coalition.
After finishing high school in 2012, Amelia believed that the voice of Indigenous youth was lacking when it came to climate change and standing up for country, and for this reason, she deferred her university studies to develop a program through the Australian Youth Climate Coalition. The programme supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people to lead on climate action and run sustainability projects in their communities.
Amelia’s vision is to build a network of young leaders from across Australia to stand up for country and stronger action on climate change and sustainability. This year, Amelia plans to expand the Australian Youth Climate Coalition Indigenous Program to intensively train and mentor up to 50 Indigenous youth across the country, work with and engage an additional 40 high school students, and create opportunities for Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities to work together.
SIC - MONSTER CHILDREN -
https://www.monsterchildren.com/amelia-telford-is-stopping-fracking-in-its-tracks-2/
Amelia Telford is a name that should have big oil quaking in their greasy boots. For the past six years, the young Bundjalung woman and her network of Indigenous climate activists across the country have been a constant thorn in the side of fossil fuel companies attempting to steamroll their way across Aboriginal land. As National Director of Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Network, Amelia works with communities and volunteers on the frontline of the climate crisis—whether it’s stopping fracking in remote areas of the Northern Territory or pressuring Australia’s big banks to boycott financing the Adani Coal Mine. And all this, at just 25-years-old. We’re running out of time to jump off this fiery highway to climate change hell, but something tells me with strong young Indigenous leaders like Amelia in charge, we might just be ok.
How did the idea for Seed first come about?
When I was a volunteer with the AYCC (Australian Youth Climate Coalition) back in high school, I was looking at the way climate change was affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. It was evident to me that there weren’t many young Indigenous people involved and there wasn’t any talk about how these issues were impacting our people first and worst. Anna Rose, she was heading up the organisation at the time, and I said to her look—I love the power of this youth organisation and climate movement, it’s so awesome to be a part of, but there’s a really glaringly obvious gap to me in terms of Indigenous people being supported to not only be a part of this space, but also in playing a leadership role, because it’s our land and our communities we’re talking about. We are on the frontlines.
Can you tell me a little more about the fracking campaign that you and the Seed team have been working hard at?
It was about five years ago that we started doing this work in the Northern Territory. We identified gas as a really big threat to regional communities across the country, and saw the places that were going to be on the frontlines, what we sometimes refer to as a sacrifice zone—in terms of, this wouldn’t happen in the Northern Beaches of Sydney, you know?
Of course not.
It’s happening in places in where these companies and governments can get away with it. So we identified it as somewhere that we could not only help the communities that had reached out to us for support, but where our national volunteer network could be a part of it in solidarity. The NT government had run this whole enquiry process to assess whether fracking was safe, and the report came back with 135 recommendations that said, ‘if you can implement these recommendations, then you can safely frack.’ It was basically just a way to let mining companies get away with destroying our land and water, and putting in a bunch of red tape to say that they’re doing the best they can. But really, there’s no guarantee that people’s water won’t be poisoned. Even the impacts of climate change, the way that they were mitigating that was through shutting down coal power plants in other places—which is well and good, but you’re still emitting huge levels of methane and carbon dioxide.
You’ve been working at this for a few years now. What changes have you seen as a result of all your efforts?
There’s still a really long way to go in terms of being able to see the changes that we need, but when you look back at the history that these gas companies have and the original plans that they had to be drilling and fracking gas all across the NT… they wanted to be a lot further ahead than where they are right now. Even though we have a really long way to go, we’ve also held off the companies for many years and I do really believe—and this is what I talk about with our volunteer network and the Seed team—and what I’m super excited for, is the day that we can say as young Indigenous people, together with the communities directly impacted by these big fossil fuel projects, that we took on one of the biggest fossil fuel companies in the country, and we won. That’s the moment. I know it’s going to happen, it might just take a few years. It’s a sustained pressure, and in this way it’s going to put them in a position where they’re going to see it’s in their best interests to walk away.
What’s been one of your biggest wins with Seed personally?
That’s a great question… I mean, since we launched in 2014, we’ve trained over 500 young Indigenous people across the country.
That’s amazing.
And just going from being one of the only Indigenous people in the room when I first got involved, to having a powerful network of young people all over the country, I think that in itself. The way that we’ve seen our movement grow and the support that Seed has now been able to provide makes me feel like if I was back in high school right now, it’d be awesome to know that there was this youth climate network out there that was full of young people that were aligned with the same values and vision for the change we need to see in the world.
Australia has so much to learn about the environment from Indigenous people. Is there one particular key teaching you wish people would take on board as soon as possible?
I think that ultimately people need to see land rights as a solution to climate change. And when I say that, I mean having our people have the final say about what happens to country and managing our land. There’s a misconception that we do get to decide on what happens to our land. It was only last year that we saw the Queensland government compulsory acquire the land of the Wangan and Jagalingou people, which means that the people said they didn’t want the mining to go ahead but the government are going to go ahead and do it anyway. It’s a tick box approach—we’ll tick the box to say that we’ve asked you, but regardless of what you say, we’re going to do whatever we want to do.
If our people were really managing our land properly, then that is ultimately a solution to climate change. That’s not to say there aren’t Indigenous communities out there that have said yes to projects, but more often than not, they’ve said yes because there’s no other alternatives and they’re bullied into it. When our people are in those leadership positions we’re not only going to create change that benefits our communities, but if our communities are thriving then everyone is thriving… because we’re at the bottom of the food chain, really. When there’s justice for us, there’s justice for everyone.
SIC - SOURCE
http://pilerats.com/written/get-to-know/5-minutes-with-millie-telford/
Five Minutes With Millie Telford (SEED/AYCC) An inspiring young Australian to get to know. Posted By Tom Wolff 6 years ago
COPY LINK
Amelia Telford – known to her friends as Millie - has an undeniable energy about her. It’s that type of energy that infects anyone in her proximity, including myself in this case. I like people with energy like Millie. I guess they make you believe that anything is possible if you’re determined enough. And Millie’s determination and self-belief in the last few years has proved that in multitudes.
Hey Millie! First, I’d like to say a big congratulations for being awarded the 2015 Australian Geographic Young Conservationist of the Year. Was there a fancy dinner in Canberra?
Thanks! 2015 has been such a significant year for all of the young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people I work with through the growing SEED Indigenous Youth Climate Network so it’s been awesome to see this hard work be recognised through this award. And yes, there was a fancy dinner in Sydney.
You’re a member of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC) and a director and founder of SEED, an organisation focused on Aboriginal youth for climate change. Do you sometimes tend to forget that you’re only 21?
I’ve been reflecting a bit recently about how the world that we live in today is constantly telling my people, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, that we’re powerless victims, destined for disaster. We hear it in the media, in government speeches and the statistics talk for themselves. However, when we tell ourselves a different story, a story of powerful, resilient people who are building our own solutions and leading change, then we can revolutionise the way we see ourselves and are better fit to confront the decision makers with a force much more powerful than the power they appear to possess.
I’m so grateful to have grown up in a supportive family with parents who would always told us kids that “you can do anything and be anyone you want to be”. For me, this meant challenging the systemic injustices that are fuelling the crises that humans are facing worldwide. Sometimes I do forget that I’m 21, but I’m easily reminded when surrounded by strong, black brothers, sisters, aunties and uncles who have been fighting this fight their entire lives and who hold a wealth of knowledge and wisdom that we must respect and protect.
mille telford1
What drove you to start SEED? What were the biggest challenges you faced in getting this project off the ground?
Respecting the land and each other comes as first nature to me, just as it has to First Nations people who have looked after our land sustainably for thousands of years. It was when I learning more about climate change that I started to connect the dots between the loss of Indigenous land, cultures, lives and the impact this was having on our communities, that I realised our people weren’t at the table, our voices weren’t being heard and the platforms to take action collectively weren’t yet available for us on the issue of climate change. So I took it to the team at the Australian Youth Climate Coalition and they agreed that supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people to take action on climate change was a huge priority, which led to me joining the team.
It then took some time to raise the funds needed to get the network off the ground and to build our own independence, but so far we’ve been going from strength to strength and growing in numbers, capacity and power everyday. It’s been a challenge to get the contemporary environmental movement to see the importance of Indigenous leadership and involvement on such an issue, but we’re getting there. We’ve got a lot of work to do to be able to work together in alliances and partnerships with different groups, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, but so far it’s been a huge learning journey for all of us.
We both have the good fortune of hailing from the Bundjalung country on the NSW North Coast. Tim Winton, in his new memoir, Island Home, talks a lot about the effect of place on identity – both for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. What aspects of home have had the most profound effect on who you are today?
My home and my family influence everything about who I am and what I do – my home is Bundjalung country. I feel incredibly connected to the beaches, mountains and bushlands that thrive in the region. For me, my work to build the movement to protect country, to fight the changing climate and to build just solutions are about standing up for my home. I wouldn’t want to see further destruction of my country, so why should anyone else have to face it. The reality is, whether or not the coal mines, gas projects or likewise are in my backyard or yours, we’re all facing the impacts of a changing climate. Climate change affects everyone, but the impacts are not evenly distributed. Too often the worlds most vulnerable communities are hit first and the hardest.
My South Sea Islander heritage also impacts my deep concern and passion to stand up for the Pacific Island nations whose islands are being inundated by rising sea levels. It breaks my heart that those who have the least responsibility for causing the crisis are the ones facing the most severe consequences. It’s the devastation as well as the determination of many of our Pacific Island neighbours that drive me and many others to do everything we can to prevent people from losing their homes to climate change impacts.
Globally, Indigenous peoples share similar - and wildly diverse - relationships with our lands and with each other. It’s this beautiful connection, as well as the shared experiences of injustice, that bring us together to build power and work in solidarity. I’m so proud of my heritage and feel so lucky to be a part of the world’s most powerful, resilient and knowledgeable people.
You’re a powerful role model for youth in Australia, especially for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids. Did you have any special mentors?
Collectively my family have been role models for me my entire life. Outside of my family, I’ve had a few role models who have played pivotal roles in my life over the last couple of years. In particular, Karrina Nolan, an incredible Yorta Yorta woman who has a wealth of experience working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across the country. She’s like a sister to me but also a really significant mentor in my life. She’s also helping with the development of SEED.
Anna Rose, the co-founder of the AYCC, has also played a significant role in my life and activist journey as someone who has always backed the voice and leadership of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people about protecting country. Anna helped pave the pathway for me to start working for AYCC and also plays a big role in pushing the rest of the environmental movement to back us.
millie telford
Going back to Island Home (again…), in the last chapter Winton says the wisdom of Aboriginal Australians continues to be the “most under-utilised intellectual and emotional resource this country has.” What do you reckon?
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and Indigenous people around the world, are the first people to have walked on this planet. We are the first scientists, the first storytellers, the first ‘conservationists’ and basically the first people to do everything and anything. We hold a great depth of knowledge about the way the world works and what it takes to keep it spinning and be fit for human life. So when it comes to protecting the land, respecting it for all it provides for us, respecting each other and ways to survive alongside each other, and any other issue that affects us as Indigenous peoples, it’s so important that our opinions, perspectives and experiences are valued.
In saying this, I’ve also experienced and witnessed a lot of tokenism and have seen the way the world operates in an extractive outlook on life where we are happy to take but not as happy to give back. When it comes to working with our people, we need to ensure that this same extractive outlook isn’t taken, and instead operate on the basis of how can we work together and learn together in ways that build the power, agenda and strength of both/all of those who are involved.
Much of the history of Aboriginal Australia has been written by white Anglo Saxon men. How important is it to for the Aboriginal community to tell their story, from a perspective that is wholly their own?
The biggest challenge that we overcame (and are still working on) with building SEED is enabling Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to be able to tell our own story in our own way for our people. It’s crucial. For too long people have talked about us, made decisions for us, written history about us, researched us and the list goes on – yet most of the time it has come without even asking us. This helps to explain why so much of it has been false, misleading and had disempowering impacts on many communities.
It’s crucial that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people determine the future of our people, which means telling our own story, making our own decisions and taking leadership in all areas that we live and thrive in – in order to survive in!
Do you think we’re breaking new ground on creating a genuine dialogue between the traditional custodians of the land and their fellow Australians?
Ahh this is just so complex… You can say that we’re climbing up a huge mountain. We’ve come a long way and we need to take time to look back and to celebrate and reflect on how far we’ve come but at the same time we’ve got a long way to go to reach the top. Every time you look up it seems as if the summit keeps getting further and further away, rather than closer. We know it’s possible but we’ve got to make sure we don’t lose people. It’s up to us to support each other to make it all the way!
References
- ^ Perkins, Miki (1 December 2020). "'Fire in the belly': Indigenous-led environment group powers up". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
External links
| This is not a Wikipedia article: It is an individual user's work-in-progress page, and may be incomplete and/or unreliable. For guidance on developing this draft, see
Wikipedia:So you made a userspace draft. Find sources:
Google (
books ·
news ·
scholar ·
free images ·
WP refs) ·
FENS ·
JSTOR ·
TWL |
Amelia Telford is a Bundjalung and South Sea Islander woman and climate activist who co-founded Australia's first Indigenous-led environment organisation, Seed Mob, in 2020. [1]. The organisation began with 250 Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander youth volunteers aged 15 to 35 from various locations around Australia.
FROM SMH RE SEED: It started in 2014 after 50 young Aboriginal people from all over Australia came together at a summit and decided the climate movement was not a space where Aboriginal people felt supported, and they wanted self-determination.
SIC Amelia is passionate about supporting a national grassroots network of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people to protect country from the impacts of fossil fuel extraction and climate change, and to be part of creating positive change for young indigenous people. She’s been awarded 2014 National NAIDOC Youth of the year, Bob Brown’s Young Environmentalist of the Year 2015, and Australian Geographic Young Conservationist of the Year 2015, all for her commitment to building a just and sustainable future for all young people.
SIC - source: https://www.abc.net.au/qanda/amelia-telford/13584156 National Director of the Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Network
Amelia Telford is a Bundjalung and South Sea Islander woman and the National Director of the Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Network.
In this work, Amelia supports a national network of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people building a movement to protect country, culture and communities from the causes and impacts of climate change.
Amelia was awarded National NAIDOC Youth of Year in 2014, Bob Brown's Young Environmentalist for the Year 2015 and Australian Geographic Young Conservationist of the Year 2015 for her commitment to building a more just and sustainable future for all young people.
SIC - SOURCE
https://www.naidoc.org.au/awards/winner-profiles/amelia-telford
Amelia Telford 2014 Youth of the Year Amelia Telford is a Bundjalung woman originating from Northern New South Wales. Amelia currently works in Melbourne as the Indigenous Coordinator for the Australian Youth Climate Coalition.
After finishing high school in 2012, Amelia believed that the voice of Indigenous youth was lacking when it came to climate change and standing up for country, and for this reason, she deferred her university studies to develop a program through the Australian Youth Climate Coalition. The programme supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people to lead on climate action and run sustainability projects in their communities.
Amelia’s vision is to build a network of young leaders from across Australia to stand up for country and stronger action on climate change and sustainability. This year, Amelia plans to expand the Australian Youth Climate Coalition Indigenous Program to intensively train and mentor up to 50 Indigenous youth across the country, work with and engage an additional 40 high school students, and create opportunities for Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities to work together.
SIC - MONSTER CHILDREN -
https://www.monsterchildren.com/amelia-telford-is-stopping-fracking-in-its-tracks-2/
Amelia Telford is a name that should have big oil quaking in their greasy boots. For the past six years, the young Bundjalung woman and her network of Indigenous climate activists across the country have been a constant thorn in the side of fossil fuel companies attempting to steamroll their way across Aboriginal land. As National Director of Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Network, Amelia works with communities and volunteers on the frontline of the climate crisis—whether it’s stopping fracking in remote areas of the Northern Territory or pressuring Australia’s big banks to boycott financing the Adani Coal Mine. And all this, at just 25-years-old. We’re running out of time to jump off this fiery highway to climate change hell, but something tells me with strong young Indigenous leaders like Amelia in charge, we might just be ok.
How did the idea for Seed first come about?
When I was a volunteer with the AYCC (Australian Youth Climate Coalition) back in high school, I was looking at the way climate change was affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. It was evident to me that there weren’t many young Indigenous people involved and there wasn’t any talk about how these issues were impacting our people first and worst. Anna Rose, she was heading up the organisation at the time, and I said to her look—I love the power of this youth organisation and climate movement, it’s so awesome to be a part of, but there’s a really glaringly obvious gap to me in terms of Indigenous people being supported to not only be a part of this space, but also in playing a leadership role, because it’s our land and our communities we’re talking about. We are on the frontlines.
Can you tell me a little more about the fracking campaign that you and the Seed team have been working hard at?
It was about five years ago that we started doing this work in the Northern Territory. We identified gas as a really big threat to regional communities across the country, and saw the places that were going to be on the frontlines, what we sometimes refer to as a sacrifice zone—in terms of, this wouldn’t happen in the Northern Beaches of Sydney, you know?
Of course not.
It’s happening in places in where these companies and governments can get away with it. So we identified it as somewhere that we could not only help the communities that had reached out to us for support, but where our national volunteer network could be a part of it in solidarity. The NT government had run this whole enquiry process to assess whether fracking was safe, and the report came back with 135 recommendations that said, ‘if you can implement these recommendations, then you can safely frack.’ It was basically just a way to let mining companies get away with destroying our land and water, and putting in a bunch of red tape to say that they’re doing the best they can. But really, there’s no guarantee that people’s water won’t be poisoned. Even the impacts of climate change, the way that they were mitigating that was through shutting down coal power plants in other places—which is well and good, but you’re still emitting huge levels of methane and carbon dioxide.
You’ve been working at this for a few years now. What changes have you seen as a result of all your efforts?
There’s still a really long way to go in terms of being able to see the changes that we need, but when you look back at the history that these gas companies have and the original plans that they had to be drilling and fracking gas all across the NT… they wanted to be a lot further ahead than where they are right now. Even though we have a really long way to go, we’ve also held off the companies for many years and I do really believe—and this is what I talk about with our volunteer network and the Seed team—and what I’m super excited for, is the day that we can say as young Indigenous people, together with the communities directly impacted by these big fossil fuel projects, that we took on one of the biggest fossil fuel companies in the country, and we won. That’s the moment. I know it’s going to happen, it might just take a few years. It’s a sustained pressure, and in this way it’s going to put them in a position where they’re going to see it’s in their best interests to walk away.
What’s been one of your biggest wins with Seed personally?
That’s a great question… I mean, since we launched in 2014, we’ve trained over 500 young Indigenous people across the country.
That’s amazing.
And just going from being one of the only Indigenous people in the room when I first got involved, to having a powerful network of young people all over the country, I think that in itself. The way that we’ve seen our movement grow and the support that Seed has now been able to provide makes me feel like if I was back in high school right now, it’d be awesome to know that there was this youth climate network out there that was full of young people that were aligned with the same values and vision for the change we need to see in the world.
Australia has so much to learn about the environment from Indigenous people. Is there one particular key teaching you wish people would take on board as soon as possible?
I think that ultimately people need to see land rights as a solution to climate change. And when I say that, I mean having our people have the final say about what happens to country and managing our land. There’s a misconception that we do get to decide on what happens to our land. It was only last year that we saw the Queensland government compulsory acquire the land of the Wangan and Jagalingou people, which means that the people said they didn’t want the mining to go ahead but the government are going to go ahead and do it anyway. It’s a tick box approach—we’ll tick the box to say that we’ve asked you, but regardless of what you say, we’re going to do whatever we want to do.
If our people were really managing our land properly, then that is ultimately a solution to climate change. That’s not to say there aren’t Indigenous communities out there that have said yes to projects, but more often than not, they’ve said yes because there’s no other alternatives and they’re bullied into it. When our people are in those leadership positions we’re not only going to create change that benefits our communities, but if our communities are thriving then everyone is thriving… because we’re at the bottom of the food chain, really. When there’s justice for us, there’s justice for everyone.
SIC - SOURCE
http://pilerats.com/written/get-to-know/5-minutes-with-millie-telford/
Five Minutes With Millie Telford (SEED/AYCC) An inspiring young Australian to get to know. Posted By Tom Wolff 6 years ago
COPY LINK
Amelia Telford – known to her friends as Millie - has an undeniable energy about her. It’s that type of energy that infects anyone in her proximity, including myself in this case. I like people with energy like Millie. I guess they make you believe that anything is possible if you’re determined enough. And Millie’s determination and self-belief in the last few years has proved that in multitudes.
Hey Millie! First, I’d like to say a big congratulations for being awarded the 2015 Australian Geographic Young Conservationist of the Year. Was there a fancy dinner in Canberra?
Thanks! 2015 has been such a significant year for all of the young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people I work with through the growing SEED Indigenous Youth Climate Network so it’s been awesome to see this hard work be recognised through this award. And yes, there was a fancy dinner in Sydney.
You’re a member of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC) and a director and founder of SEED, an organisation focused on Aboriginal youth for climate change. Do you sometimes tend to forget that you’re only 21?
I’ve been reflecting a bit recently about how the world that we live in today is constantly telling my people, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, that we’re powerless victims, destined for disaster. We hear it in the media, in government speeches and the statistics talk for themselves. However, when we tell ourselves a different story, a story of powerful, resilient people who are building our own solutions and leading change, then we can revolutionise the way we see ourselves and are better fit to confront the decision makers with a force much more powerful than the power they appear to possess.
I’m so grateful to have grown up in a supportive family with parents who would always told us kids that “you can do anything and be anyone you want to be”. For me, this meant challenging the systemic injustices that are fuelling the crises that humans are facing worldwide. Sometimes I do forget that I’m 21, but I’m easily reminded when surrounded by strong, black brothers, sisters, aunties and uncles who have been fighting this fight their entire lives and who hold a wealth of knowledge and wisdom that we must respect and protect.
mille telford1
What drove you to start SEED? What were the biggest challenges you faced in getting this project off the ground?
Respecting the land and each other comes as first nature to me, just as it has to First Nations people who have looked after our land sustainably for thousands of years. It was when I learning more about climate change that I started to connect the dots between the loss of Indigenous land, cultures, lives and the impact this was having on our communities, that I realised our people weren’t at the table, our voices weren’t being heard and the platforms to take action collectively weren’t yet available for us on the issue of climate change. So I took it to the team at the Australian Youth Climate Coalition and they agreed that supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people to take action on climate change was a huge priority, which led to me joining the team.
It then took some time to raise the funds needed to get the network off the ground and to build our own independence, but so far we’ve been going from strength to strength and growing in numbers, capacity and power everyday. It’s been a challenge to get the contemporary environmental movement to see the importance of Indigenous leadership and involvement on such an issue, but we’re getting there. We’ve got a lot of work to do to be able to work together in alliances and partnerships with different groups, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, but so far it’s been a huge learning journey for all of us.
We both have the good fortune of hailing from the Bundjalung country on the NSW North Coast. Tim Winton, in his new memoir, Island Home, talks a lot about the effect of place on identity – both for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. What aspects of home have had the most profound effect on who you are today?
My home and my family influence everything about who I am and what I do – my home is Bundjalung country. I feel incredibly connected to the beaches, mountains and bushlands that thrive in the region. For me, my work to build the movement to protect country, to fight the changing climate and to build just solutions are about standing up for my home. I wouldn’t want to see further destruction of my country, so why should anyone else have to face it. The reality is, whether or not the coal mines, gas projects or likewise are in my backyard or yours, we’re all facing the impacts of a changing climate. Climate change affects everyone, but the impacts are not evenly distributed. Too often the worlds most vulnerable communities are hit first and the hardest.
My South Sea Islander heritage also impacts my deep concern and passion to stand up for the Pacific Island nations whose islands are being inundated by rising sea levels. It breaks my heart that those who have the least responsibility for causing the crisis are the ones facing the most severe consequences. It’s the devastation as well as the determination of many of our Pacific Island neighbours that drive me and many others to do everything we can to prevent people from losing their homes to climate change impacts.
Globally, Indigenous peoples share similar - and wildly diverse - relationships with our lands and with each other. It’s this beautiful connection, as well as the shared experiences of injustice, that bring us together to build power and work in solidarity. I’m so proud of my heritage and feel so lucky to be a part of the world’s most powerful, resilient and knowledgeable people.
You’re a powerful role model for youth in Australia, especially for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids. Did you have any special mentors?
Collectively my family have been role models for me my entire life. Outside of my family, I’ve had a few role models who have played pivotal roles in my life over the last couple of years. In particular, Karrina Nolan, an incredible Yorta Yorta woman who has a wealth of experience working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across the country. She’s like a sister to me but also a really significant mentor in my life. She’s also helping with the development of SEED.
Anna Rose, the co-founder of the AYCC, has also played a significant role in my life and activist journey as someone who has always backed the voice and leadership of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people about protecting country. Anna helped pave the pathway for me to start working for AYCC and also plays a big role in pushing the rest of the environmental movement to back us.
millie telford
Going back to Island Home (again…), in the last chapter Winton says the wisdom of Aboriginal Australians continues to be the “most under-utilised intellectual and emotional resource this country has.” What do you reckon?
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and Indigenous people around the world, are the first people to have walked on this planet. We are the first scientists, the first storytellers, the first ‘conservationists’ and basically the first people to do everything and anything. We hold a great depth of knowledge about the way the world works and what it takes to keep it spinning and be fit for human life. So when it comes to protecting the land, respecting it for all it provides for us, respecting each other and ways to survive alongside each other, and any other issue that affects us as Indigenous peoples, it’s so important that our opinions, perspectives and experiences are valued.
In saying this, I’ve also experienced and witnessed a lot of tokenism and have seen the way the world operates in an extractive outlook on life where we are happy to take but not as happy to give back. When it comes to working with our people, we need to ensure that this same extractive outlook isn’t taken, and instead operate on the basis of how can we work together and learn together in ways that build the power, agenda and strength of both/all of those who are involved.
Much of the history of Aboriginal Australia has been written by white Anglo Saxon men. How important is it to for the Aboriginal community to tell their story, from a perspective that is wholly their own?
The biggest challenge that we overcame (and are still working on) with building SEED is enabling Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to be able to tell our own story in our own way for our people. It’s crucial. For too long people have talked about us, made decisions for us, written history about us, researched us and the list goes on – yet most of the time it has come without even asking us. This helps to explain why so much of it has been false, misleading and had disempowering impacts on many communities.
It’s crucial that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people determine the future of our people, which means telling our own story, making our own decisions and taking leadership in all areas that we live and thrive in – in order to survive in!
Do you think we’re breaking new ground on creating a genuine dialogue between the traditional custodians of the land and their fellow Australians?
Ahh this is just so complex… You can say that we’re climbing up a huge mountain. We’ve come a long way and we need to take time to look back and to celebrate and reflect on how far we’ve come but at the same time we’ve got a long way to go to reach the top. Every time you look up it seems as if the summit keeps getting further and further away, rather than closer. We know it’s possible but we’ve got to make sure we don’t lose people. It’s up to us to support each other to make it all the way!
References
- ^ Perkins, Miki (1 December 2020). "'Fire in the belly': Indigenous-led environment group powers up". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
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