Amelia Telford is the National Director for the Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Network.
A proud Aboriginal and South Sea Islander woman from Bundjalung country, she first became interested in environmental justice while she was in high school.
“For a lot of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander young people we are so connected to our country and to the places that mean a lot to our people and our cultures and protecting it is a part of our responsibility for living in this world and in Australia,” she told Mamamia when she came into the Sydney office recently.
“I’ve been fortunate to feel such a strong connection to the land and to where I come from and to my family.
“We live in a country that has a very rich, old history, tens of thousand of years of Aboriginal people living here but it’s one that often gets overlooked.”
You can watch the full interview above and find out more about Amelia and Seed here.
Top Comments
Climate change is a scientific matter and deserves to be treated with respect.
How is being indigenous or Indian or an Eskimo with some historical connections to the land count as some extra qualification in this scientific topic?
What's not all clear is what Seed actually does. It seems they want to hold a summit in Sydney in early May but can't really see how this will address climate change. In fact unless they are all walking there it will almost certainly do more damage than good as air travel is a major contributor to climate change.