Amelia Telford-Sowing The SEEDs of Indigenous Youth Climate Action - a podcast by Twig.fm

When Amelia Telford was in the third grade she wrote a letter to Australia’s then Prime Minister- John Howard, asking him to change the national anthem. From a young age this Bundajalung woman understood that to change something, you need to challenge it-and she’s been doing so ever since.

As the founder of SEED: Australia’s first Indigenous youth led climate network, Amelia fundamentally sees herself firstly as part of a social justice movement and then as part of the environmental movement. But as she explains in this episode of MHP the two are not mutually exclusive.

While indigenous peoples across the planet have been the first scientists, first environmentalist and first conservationists, they are left out of the climate conversation. Amelia explains how governments and even the climate movement itself often doesn't focus on those directly impacted by climate change. Amelia is changing that.

Amelia and SEED is building an extraordinary grassroots network of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander youth, working together to protect their land, their culture and communities from the effects of climate change and extractive industries.

In this episode of MHP this remarkable young woman tells why sees the climate issue as more an issue of social justice, being able to be a part of but also be able to analyse the movement from a uniquely indigenous perspective, how the root causes of a lot of the worlds problems stem from some of the same things.
While she has an articulate and comprehensive vision of her perfect planet, Amelia is pretty happy at the moment in simply having “one of the best jobs in the world”.

Amelia Telford  founded SEED: Australia’s first Indigenous youth led climate network after seeing a need for greater indigenous youth representation within the Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC). She was the 2014 NAIDOC Youth of the Year and the 2015 Bob Brown Young Environmentalist of the Year and the Australian Geographic Young Conservationist of the Year.

You can find out more about Amelia Telford and SEED at:

http://www.seedmob.org.au
https://www.facebook.com/seedmob.org.au/?fref=nf

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