Why we're protecting country
Sign the petition and add your voice to the growing movement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people standing up to protect our land, culture and communities from climate change and fossil fuel extraction.
We are calling on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to rule out any Federal Government investment, subsidies or royalty free periods for any new coal and unconventional gas projects.
As Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the First peoples of this land, we have a responsibility and a right to look after country as our people have for generations.
We have lived sustainably off this land since time immemorial. It is an unbroken legacy of the most successful sustainability this world has ever known. It is one unbroken chain and we refuse to be the link that breaks. This is why as young people we know we cannot sit by, we must rise to this challenge and take action.
In recent years we have seen a rapid increase in impacts on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities due to global warming. These include an increase in intensity and frequency extreme weather events, severe drought causing sickness in remote communities, rising sea levels in the Torres Strait and changing seasons throughout the north of Australia.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are standing up and saying no to fossil fuel extraction, they don't want their country destroyed and we continue reject the rhetoric that the only way to gain economic advantage for our peoples is to sell off land to these companies.
We are the caretakers, protection of country is at the very core of our culture and connection to the land and sea. It is the teaching of the Dreaming.
We are not alone, Indigenous peoples all over the world are standing together calling for climate justice, from our brothers and sisters in the pacific who are witnessing the ocean wash into their homes, to the First Nations people in North America who are continuing to fight against the destruction from the Tar Sands and the Keystone XL Pipeline.
We are calling on the Australian Government to move beyond fossil fuels extraction in order to Protect Country from the worst impacts of climate change. Australia is one of the world’s largest exporters of fossil fuels and regardless of where the coal or gas is burnt it contributes to dangerous levels of warming.
We can show the Government that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will do whatever it takes to protect our land, communities and culture from the impacts of climate change and destructive fossil fuel projects on our country.