A movement of First Nations young people standing up for their land, water and culture

TISHIKO KING

Tishiko King is a proud Torres Strait Islander from the Kulkulgal Nation, Seed Mob Community Organiser and Impact Coordinator with the Environmental Film Festival Australia.

Australia is one of the most biologically diverse countries on the planet and for over 46,000 years, Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders have been conservationists and the custodians of their lands and islands.

We are a part of the oldest continuing culture in the world and have lived in harmony with our land for generations. Right now, climate change is disproportionately affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people where we are experiencing sea levels rising in the Torres Strait, the loss of sacred country, and diminishing food and water accessibility.

Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Network, often referred to as Seed Mob, is Australia’s first Indigenous organisation that is on the frontlines of climate justice. We have been building a movement of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people to protect their land, rivers and oceans from the causes and impacts of climate change.

Since 2014 we have brought together and built the capacity of young mob from the far corners of our country, to lead and change their communities and collectively take action on our campaigns. This is through grassroots organising in communities, with pop-up stalls at local events like NAIDOC week and classroom visits at high schools and universities.

We are seeing an incredible movement of First Nations people resisting further ecocide on their country. We are engaged with environmental concerns across our nation.

In the Northern Territory, our campaigns are focused on fracking, where rock is fractured to extract gas.

In Western Australia, after the recent destruction of culturally significant sites on Gija country in East Kimberley, Garnkiny and Goorlabal people are campaigning to demand changes to the flaws in the Aboriginal Heritage Act (1972). These are flaws that have allowed big mining corporations to legally destroy other Aboriginal heritage sites in the Pilbara.

In Queensland, the Wangan and Jagalingou people are continuing the fight and resistance against coal company Adani, standing their ground to protect and end the desecration of their homelands.

In Djapwurrung country in Victoria, their men, women and surrounding clans are fighting to protect their sacred 800-year-old trees from the development of highways and urbanisation. Their sacred trees are their songlines that have cultural significance to their women.

And in the Torres Strait Islands, eight claimants have opened a case with the United Nations Human Rights Committee against the Australian government for not taking action on reducing greenhouse gas emissions in line with Australia’s commitment to a 1.5-degree target under the Paris Agreement.

Despite our remote communities and islands being most at risk, we are seeing big fossil fuel corporations cosying up to their mates in politics, so that they can continue to wreck our climate and bleed our country dry, for their own profits. First Nations people will not have that and we are holding governments and corporations accountable for their actions.

Right now, 51% of the Northern Territory is covered by exploration licences for oil and gas. If all this went ahead, much of the Aboriginal-owned land would have their country polluted by the shale gas industry, led by companies like Origin Energy, with other energy companies like Santos waiting in the wings to follow their lead.

Our deserts, springs, plains and bushland are too precious to risk dangerous fracking wells. These wells will potentially poison groundwater, pollute the air, destroy sacred sites, and change our seasons by worsening climate change. Fracking companies like Origin Energy have plans to frack up huge regions of the Northern Territory in the Beetaloo basin (1).

For four years now, Seed has been supporting Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory who have been standing up to protect their land, water and culture from the destruction and detrimental impacts of shale gas fracking. Energy companies are trying to progress by illustrating that they have consent from Traditional owners. While sadly this is not the case, we have used this as a tool in our campaign to shift the narrative that has inspired our theory of change.

If we build a powerful movement of Origin staff, customers and community opposed to fracking, having thousands of conversations and putting internal and external pressure on Origin Energy, we will force them to abandon their risky fracking plans because we will associate their brand with fracking, oil and climate change and pose a significant reputational risk to them.

There is no denying that First Nations people are intrinsically entwined and connected to country. We are inherently a part of our natural ecosystems where bloodlines run deep into our land and oceans. The knowledge from our Ancestors that has been passed down through generations to our Elders today is the most valuable asset that we as First Nations people hold. With the devastation and environmental destruction from the bushfires of the summer of 2019/2020, our nation saw the impacts of climate change reach levels that we cannot ignore. Now, in unprecedented times, we are facing an international health pandemic.

In recent years there has been education on Aboriginal Land Management using traditional practices like Cultural Burning. Significantly, on 25 August 2020, the New South Wales Government released the New South Wales Bushfire Inquiry Report, a detailed report that included a list of recommendations supporting the use of Aboriginal traditional practices for land management.

This is why Seed is building a movement of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people across our nation. We are advocating for our communities and for the rights of nature to exist, thrive and evolve whilst importantly supporting, encouraging and having critical conversations on why we should be leading in looking after our country.

Right now at Seed we are focused on fighting to keep all fossil fuels in the ground. We recognise that digging up our sacred country hurts us now and has indirect global impacts on Indigenous communities. Our country is more than just a living heritage of deep cultural significance. It is who we are. We are born from our country, our islands.

We need to rebalance the human-nature interaction that is central to our culture and our traditions. We are at a crucial moment, and the way we are occupying this planet is just not working. We need to stand together and we need to lead this movement because social justice is climate justice, and if not for us, then for our future generations.

(1) Michael Mazengarb, ‘Origin resumes fracking in Beetaloo Basin as Coalition pushes gas-led recovery’ (21 September 2020) https://reneweconomy.com.au/ origin-resumes-fracking-in-beetaloo-basin-ascoalition-pushes-gas-led-recovery-94564/; See also www.originbeetaloo.com.au