Uncle Pabai Pabai and Uncle Paul Kabai | Sending a message to the world at COP27 from Torres Strait

We will point to our islands on a map and say, this is where our communities live and have lived for 65,000 years. We will say we exist and we're sinking. Our message is, reduce emissions or else we will lose everything, we will be Australia's first climate change refugees.

Before we left, we sat with our families at our kitchen tables to talk to them about how our islands used to be. We spoke about where the land was that we would play footy as children that is now covered by seawater. We talked about our gardens where we grew taro and cassava as children, they are now infected with salt. We talked about our sacred sites and our ancestors graves that face destructive erosion and the cultural loss we will have if our islands are taken by the sea.

If Boigu and Saibai disappear, we will lose everything. We will not be able to say we are a Boigu man and a Saibai man because our islands won't be there. We will have nothing behind us.

As world leaders sit at the negotiating table to decide the future of communities around the world, our families in Boigu and Saibai are starting the countdown to monsoon season.

Between December and March, the rising sea lashes our islands, stealing pieces of our land and taking it to the bottom of the sea, and with it our hopes for our kids and future generations. Each year it gets worse. We are sinking.

First Nations Peoples in Australia and around the world are custodians of the land. We understand its rhythms, the patterns of the seasons and when it is healthy and when it is sick. As Guda Maluyligal men, we have a duty to protect Country, community and culture.

That is why we're bringing our landmark case, Pabai Pabai & Anor v Commonwealth of Australia, against the Australian government for its failure to protect our islands from climate harm.

In June next year, we will tell the Australian Federal Court the federal government has a legal responsibility to ensure Torres Strait Islander peoples are not harmed by climate change. In legal terms, this is called a "duty of care".

READ MORE:

We will argue to the court that by failing to prevent climate change, the Australian government has unlawfully breached this duty of care, because of the severe and lasting harm that climate change would cause to our communities. We will ask the court to order the government to prevent this harm to our communities by cutting greenhouse gas emissions in line with science.

Our fight in the Australian courts is one that will affect our brothers and sisters around the world. At COP27, we've learned climate change is being experienced by people around the world and there are many commonalities, for example, Brazilians losing their food sources of cassava just like Torres Strait communities.

It's not just cassava, for us climate change has meant we can no longer fish for barramundi and mud crabs because the freshwater swamps have been inundated with salt. We can't fish in our usual fishing spots in the sea, because they are now covered with sand. We can't hunt the dugong and turtle because the seagrass is covered in sand and the dugongs are unable to breed where they have in the past. We can't grow taro, pineapple and sugarcane. We now rely on the mainland for our food.

Experiences of low-lying islands in the Pacific are similar to the Torres Strait and Torres Strait Islanders, just like Pacific Islanders, are pleading with the Australian government to step into its big brother role and take climate action in line with 1.5 degrees and the science.

There is hope in our common experiences. Movements of people around the world are strong and standing together in solidarity. We've seen the leadership of the youth leaders from the Pacific and the strength of Indigenous women at the Indigenous women's rally.

The movement of people demanding climate action is being heard in courtrooms in Australia and around 80 other countries. Last night, we spoke at our official side event alongside Maori iwi leader, Mike Smith (Ngpuhi and Ngti Kahu) who is taking seven of New Zealand's biggest emitters to court, including Fonterra and Genesis Energy, and Luisa Neubauer who took on the German government and shared stories of how climate change is hurting all of us.

Climate change has touched every person in Australia from the angry Summer bushfires and the flames that reduced our homes to ashes and polluted our lungs, to the floods that swept across our communities, destroyed crops and have increased the cost of food, droughts that put immeasurable stress on farmers and regional communities, changing seasons and the rising seas that threaten to sweep us off the map.

Every one of these changes to our climate affects First Nations people, our connection to the Country, community and culture deeply.

What we've felt at COP27 is our pain is shared. The pain connects communities in Torres Strait who could lose Country, culture, identity and home to those experiencing relentless drought in the UK, people in Pakistan who lost one third of their country to floods, and communities of the Pacific who face being swallowed by the sea.

This pain also gives us strength. It connects us and will push us all to stand together for a better future for our kids. There is too much at stake, our identities, cultures, food, environment, homes and spiritual connection.

We will continue our legal battle for our communities, and people around the world and all of our kids. Globally, courts are saying that climate action is not a matter of politics, climate action is a matter of law. In our pain, we hold hope and invite you to join us.