In 1999, after 20 years away from home, I came back to Boigu and it was very different. We lost our waterfront beaches - they had all washed away. Even our camping grounds were gone, now they are much further in from the mangroves. These were the places we used to yarn and play, fish, hunt, and garden - all gone. So much has changed.
Boigu Island, QLD
My name is Percy Maitie and I’m one of the Elders from Boigu Island (Koedal Clan). I was born on Thursday Island. Many of us were born there because we don’t have many resources here in Boigu, so everybody has to go to Thursday Island and register there before coming back. Boigu is now where I live and where I am all the time.
When I was 13 years old and left Boigu to go to Thursday Island for school, we were relocated to the Northern Peninsula area and then Bamaga for secondary school. I was in Grade 8 at that time. I finished school in 1976, and at that time we didn’t really hear about the effects of climate change.
In 1999, after 20 years away from home, I came back to Boigu and it was very different. We lost our waterfront beaches – they had all washed away. Even our camping grounds were gone, now they are much further in from the mangroves. These were the places we used to yarn and play, fish, hunt, and garden – all gone. So much has changed.
Even before I went away, I was helping my Uncle build a rockwall to stop water coming into the community, but without many resources here, it took a lot of manpower to collect the rocks and build a strong structure.
All our seasons and weather patterns are now running a bit late. We’ve noticed something is wrong. We’ve also seen bigger storms and heavier rainfalls causing the water to rise. It’s not normal for us.
Our community loves this island. We live on this land, and off the sea around us. We have a strong connection to this country, and we don’t want to lose it in the future.
Poor water quality is also beginning to affect the health of members in our community. We are afraid that our water cleaning plants will be contaminated by sea water resulting in us being infected.
The Australian government has a duty of care to protect us from climate change. We would like to see a better life and future prospects for our community living in Boigu.
For people who don’t believe in climate change, get your head out of the sand and stand on the frontlines with us before you speak. For those who have experienced climate change, speak up and say something – I want young people to come forward and tell their stories.
I signed the Pacific elders’ statement on climate change because we are heading towards a similar situation as our Pacific friends. I am grateful that our Pacific elders came to Boigu to stand in solidarity with us. After all, if we face the same problem, we should voice it out together.
I hope we will get visits from members of the government soon, so they can see what is happening on Boigu for themselves.
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We have spent a summer trapped in our home with heatwave after heatwave hitting our city in the longest and hottest summer of my lifetime (and indeed the city’s lifetime). I have had to stop my three year old son playing outside day after day and we have all had to stay in the same room as it is the only air conditioned one. Summer used to be a time of fun, of outdoor barbecues for dinner, of freedom. Now it has a feeling of containment and dread. My job requires me to confront climate issues and victims of bushfire and other disasters and their experiences and the flood of climate information leave me feeling deep grief, distress and helplessness. My little son loves animals passionately and i dread the day I will have to tell him about climate change and about how so many of the creatures that inspire him are threatened by mankind’s very existence. I fear he will grow into an adult in a time of increasingly frequent and severe natural disasters, in a country weakened economically and fragmented socially by these disasters. That by the time he grows up the Great Barrier Reef we describe to him will be dead and gone. Having him despite my fear for his future was an act of hope and defiance, but that hope is hard to maintain when our governments will seemingly not act to end the use of fossil fuels and replace them with renewables with the speed that will give my beautiful child the bright future he deserves. I hope and pray that this case changes the situation. And I thank these elders for bringing this action.
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