What is #JustClimate?
This project, which ran from January 2017 to August 2018, profiled the health impacts of climate change and gave readers the opportunity to hear from diverse Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities about caring for country in the context of climate change and sustainability.
It profiled the wider influence of Indigenous knowledges and practices, and the convergence that is occurring among individuals and organisations engaging with our collective responsibilities to care for country and the planet. Read the #JustClimate archive here.
For further reading and information, check out:
The International Association for Ecology and Health
The Australian Institute of Ecological Agriculture
The Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture and Social Health based in Canberra
The Indigenous Rangers – Working on Country Program
The Seed mob – an Indigenous youth-led climate network
What are the components of #JustClimate?
- A series of articles published at Croakey in multimedia formats
- A Twitter festival, held on 26 March 2017
- A sustained social media presence around the #JustClimate hashtag, raising awareness of the general issues and creating new networks for action and collaboration.
Who are we?
- Professor Kerry Arabena
@ArabenaKerry
A descendant of the Meriam people from the Torres Strait, President of the International Association for Ecology and Health, Chair for Indigenous Health and Director of the Indigenous Health Equity Unit at the University of Melbourne - Summer May Finlay
@OnTopicAus
A Yorta Yorta woman, public health practitioner, Croakey teamster, and PhD candidate (University of South Australia) - Marie McInerney
@mariemcinerney
A non-Indigenous journalist and editor, Croakey editor
• Melissa Sweet
@croakeyblog
A non-Indigenous public health journalist, Croakey publisher and editor, and PhD.
• Mitchell Ward
@rocklilydesign
A non-Indigenous designer and Croakey web developer.
Paul Dutton – #Kali (Dingo Totem) #Mukwarra (Moiety) #Barkindji (mob) – Baaka (of the river (Darling)) Striving for #MotherEarth Supporting #NoDAPL – has contributed an artwork, Mother Earth, to the logo.
@pauldutton1968
Kelly Briggs, an award-winning Gomeroi writer, will also contribute an article to the series.
@TheKooriWoman
Dr Yotti Kingsley at the University of Melbourne is an advisor to the project.
@YottiKingsley
How can you help support #JustClimate?
SHARE the news about the campaign via social media and your networks
USE the hashtag #JustClimate on relevant tweets and articles
CONTRIBUTE articles or ideas for articles
SUGGEST useful links and articles for us to profile as part of the series.
What is the project’s framework?
This project is being informed by a decolonising methodology for journalism practice, an approach that has also been used the #JustJustice series profiling solutions to the over-incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
This includes:
- Respect for country.
- Providing a useful service for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities.
- Taking strengths-based approaches.
- Ensuring priority representation of and respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and their expertise, knowledges, cultures and experiences. This includes holistic understandings of health that incorporate cultural, spiritual and social and emotional wellbeing.
- Process matters. This project recognises the importance of respect and relationships, and puts emphasis on how the project is done, as one of the outcomes.
- Recognition of the role of colonisation in contributing to environmental degradation, and acknowledgement/understanding of how this history plays out in the present.
Acknowledgements
Croakey acknowledges and thanks the Oak Foundation for a grant to enable the #JustClimate project, and especially Stephen Campbell and Lucie Rychetnik for their thoughtful assistance in facilitating this. We also acknowledge and thank Professor Kerry Arabena for funding Marie McInerney’s registration to attend the international One Health EcoHealth Congress in Melbourne in 2016. We also acknowledge and thank the Public Health Association of Australia for auspicing the Oak Foundation grant, and Paul Dutton for the artwork, Mother Earth, in the logo.
