Page 34 - EarthHeroes

After finishing high school, Amelia decided to defer her place at university and work for the AYCC instead. She
had wanted to study medicine because Indigenous peoples suffer more health problems than most
Australians. But although she had worked hard to earn her university place, she felt that preventing climate change would have a greater overall impact
on their wellbeing. Her father was unhappy with her decision, concerned that she was wasting educational opportunities that his generation
hadn’t had, but Amelia was determined.
In 2014, while working at AYCC, Amelia raised funds to launch SEED, a branch of AYCC led by Indigenous youth. Amelia was its national director. Over the last six years, the organisation has grown, with a network of over 200 volunteers across the country. Amelia has trained many young Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander people to be confident in speaking out and organising their own climate change actions. Their aims are to fight fossil fuel mining in Australia, while highlighting the effects of climate change on Indigenous peoples. They see this as a matter of climate justice, arguing that although climate change affects everyone, the impact is not evenly distributed. Too often, the world’s poorest and most vulnerable communities are hit first and hardest. SEED believes that the climate emergency is an opportunity to build a fairer world for everyone, powered by renewable energy.
Through SEED, Amelia has fought against the Carmichael mine, which will be among the world’s largest. The mine threatens wildlife and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ancestral land and culture, both directly in its construction and indirectly through contributing to global warming. SEED argues that the carbon emissions from burning coal from the new mine goes against global attempts to limit warming to less than two degrees Celsius, as set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement. Amelia and her team are angry that, despite the fact that Australia signed up to the agreement, many of the country’s political leaders support fossil fuel mining because it makes so much money for the country.
Adani, the company behind the coal mine project, needed to borrow money
to allow it to go ahead. Always looking for fun and positive ways of getting attention, Amelia and her team organised protests outside bank headquarters, giving out roses to bank staff while asking them not to invest money in the mine. SEED worked with other environmental groups as part of the Stop Adani Climate
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