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As a proud Torres Strait Islander woman, already in my lifetime I have seen the impacts of climate change on our islands.
I travelled to COP26 in Glasgow for my people and to stand up for First Nations people, as a representative of both Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Network and Our Islands Our Home, a campaign calling on the Australian government to do more to protect the Torres Strait Islands.
A fisherman, whose livelihood relies on his catch, casts his net from a boat off Hammond Island in the Torres Strait.Credit:Kate Geraghty
As Indigenous people, we don’t just see the climate crisis, we feel it. Our land is a part of who we are, a part of our identity. This connection to our land and one another stems far and wide, across the oceans and seas.
It’s these connections and knowledge of our homelands that is absolutely critical in the collective fight for climate justice.
But while world leaders sit on their hands, going round and round in circles, making empty and misleading commitments, it was a young Samoan woman, Brianna Fruean, of the Pacific Climate Warriors, who issued a caution of the power of the words, noting there is no place for pity in the fight against climate change.
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Brianna pointed out “how climate action can be vastly different to climate justice, how two degrees could mean the end, and 1.5 could mean a fighting chance”. She shared a chilling message with world leaders that “in your words, you wield the weapons that can save us or sell us out”.
When I return to Australia, I return with a message I have delivered many times, but now I’m further fuelled by the many First Nations communities I know are fighting with me.
What I say to Australia is this: Get behind First Nations communities. Stand alongside us in our fight for climate justice, for land rights, and for self-determination. These are critical pieces in our fight against the climate crisis. Because colonialism and capitalism have caused the climate crisis, but Indigenous leadership can solve it.
For now, the state leaders have left Glasgow, but we will stay and fight. There is an Indigenous people’s action planned over the weekend, and make no mistake, we are rising.
Tishiko King is the campaigns director at Seed Mob and community organiser for Our Islands Our Home.