Cambridge Zero Climate Change Festival 2022
The Cambridge Zero Climate Change Festival is taking place 14 – 16 October 2022 and is focussed on the theme of Climate Accessibility. One of the presentations – ‘Clean Energy And Climate Repair: How First Nations Peoples Will Save The World’ – references the work of the Aboriginal Carbon Foundation.
This presentation asks whether and how energy transition will improve First Nations’ peoples’ lives and explains how we can all help First Nations peoples in their climate-repair efforts. The organisers of the presentation are Karrina Nolan, a descendant of the Yorta Yorta people of Victoria, Australia and the General Manager of Original Power, and Dr Lily O’Neill is a Senior Research Fellow with Melbourne Climate Futures, the University of Melbourne. Her research focus is how First Nations people are leading and benefiting from the clean energy transition and climate repair projects. Extracts from the video presentation as follows:
Dr Lily O’Neill | Senior Research Fellow, Melbourne Climate Futures, University of Melbourne: “In 1788 Australian First Nations people had been living on the continent for 65,000 years. In comparison, hominids only arrived in Europe a mere 40,000 years ago. And in complete contrast to later wrong views that First Nations people merely wandered the earth, they managed their landscape intently, with care and with deep purpose. It is a myth that Australia was an untamed wilderness in 1788. First Nations People had a continent wide, scientific, complex, specific system of land management for their land, their country. The continent-wide landscape they created – what author Bill Gammage calls the ‘greatest estate on earth’ – covered more land than any other estate on earth. … And their chief ally in this system of land management was fire. … Traditional Owners can again manage their country according to age old land management practices and this is proving to be a key way to fight climate change, as well as reduce fuel loads feeding vast bushfires, like we saw in the Black Summer Fires. These ways of burning country create Carbon Credits and these Carbon Credits are made from knowledge tested and refined over 65,000 years.”
Barry J Hunter | Executive Carbon Manager, Northern Australia Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance: “We’re developing a Cultural Fire Credit, being developed between the Aboriginal Carbon Foundation and the Firesticks Alliance Corporation. The aim of the Fire Credit is to allow for people to be able to get out on country and practice cultural burning on country.”
Rowan Foley | Chief Executive Officer, Aboriginal Carbon Foundation: “People can invest in cultural burning to save the country and ensure the Traditional Owners continue to practice looking after country.”
Shilo Villaflor | Regional Manager, Aboriginal Carbon Foundation: “We’re aiming to raise the first $10 million for an exciting community led program, the Cultural Fire Credit – this is a call for action for you to invest in a community, grass roots level organisation that will make change throughout Australia and I wanted to remind you of the importance that women play in caring for country.”
Victor Steffensen | Co-founder and Advisor to the Board, Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation: “It’s so exciting that we an indigenous owned and developed credit for the communities to look after country and a credit that goes through all boundaries of the carbon, of all the animals, the vegetation come back and also the social benefits within our communities with the employment and the transfer of knowledge. This is the credit to invest in, a credit that is developed by community.”
To see the full video presentation, please follow this link – Clean Energy And Climate Repair: How First Nations Peoples Will Save The World – video on Vimeo.
