YACSA young member and School Strike for Climate organiser, Amber sat down with us to give some insight into her experience getting involved with decision making and advice for other young activists looking to do the same here in SA.
Amber is also establishing a youth forum for students from year ten to 12, run by young people for young people, so stay tuned till the end to hear more about that and how to get involved.
So, why don’t you start by telling us a little bit about yourself, your involvement with School Strike for Climate and what sparked your passion?
I'm Amber, I'm 17 and I'm currently studying year 11 at University Senior College. My passion sparked after I marched in the big School Strike for Climate event in 2019. There was about 20,000 people there, and I felt overwhelmingly empowered by the power of young people and marching alongside young people, I’ve never felt that kind of empowerment before.
After that I looked into joining the core team and a few weeks later I did. I feel a really deep responsibility as a young person to stand up for action against the climate crisis, as it is as my generation, and probably a few generations before and after me, that are going to be the ones that are most impacted by it. I think this responsibility has fallen on young people now, and that’s why I joined School Strike for Climate.
I have been part of School Strike for Climate since the end of 2019 and it's been brilliant. Honestly, the empowerment that we feel together, it’s definitely a group of angry young people and that's what fuels us to march and to create these protests. They were pretty big for me personally, I was sick of it all, I was just tired and very angry at the world, and I still kind of am. Protesting is a way of coping in these uncertain times and we're able to put our anger into something good.
We had a strike in on the 25th of September last year, focused on opposing the Australian gas industry and the federal government support of gas. Obviously 2020 was very hard to do a big 20,000 people march once again, but it was great to have a few hundred come down and to get the community together again. Obviously we want the health of the people attending to be our number one priority in this, so we're still learning on how to create more safe marches and protests, and we're fortunate enough in Adelaide to have another two marches this year, one was in March and there’s another one coming in October.
It's sometimes hard to plan and have a big march and not see direct action taking place, but I need to keep reminding myself that the reward is for me, this is what I want to do and the people around me are here to support me. I just need to be in that mindset to understand that this is a personal growth and a personal development. That’s important for me, I need to know that the people around me feel the same way and that they’re there to march for much of the same reasons that I'm doing it and feeling so supported in that manner, despite what the government is doing for climate action in general.
How big was that jump, going from someone who was attending those marches to then being on the inside and organising them? How different is that experience?
That was a definitely an unreal experience, I went from just not knowing a lot about climate change to being invited to have meetings with the police and Adelaide City Council. I was still 14/15 at the time so I was pretty unexperienced with striking and what that actually meant for me, but it was very cool.
Activism and advocacy, it's just one way of creating change it’s great to get media coverage and to get our voices heard at a political level. Striking is definitely only one aspect of creating a change though.
You’ve been involved in a number of youth forums and other opportunities, what's your experience been with these outside of School Strike?
Me and my friends last year wrote up a proposal about waste management in all state schools and we reflected the kind of thing that we were initiating in the BinShift proposal, and we met with the Minister for Environment and Water and we talked about it with him. I felt very grateful that I have this opportunity where I can meet with someone who can make a direct impact on that and that can listen to me as a young person.
I've also had the opportunity to be on the Commissioner for Children and Young People’s advisory committee with a few other amazing young people in South Australia. We’ve had conversations from talking about mental health to environment to schools, so I feel very privileged to be on that and to be a representative for my peers and suggest things on the behalf of other young people.
I'm doing a lot of work trying to create local, communal change with my local council. It was just such a random connection, they just dropped the letter by with information about green waste, and my friend and I who both live in the same council area thought wow, that's super cool, let's meet the people that are doing that. We met with them and that turned into this massive thing, we met with the mayor and we got filmed and then I had a meeting last week with the Environment Officer and an Engagement Officer and they want to hear about young people so, I’d definitely say get in touch with your local council. It’s a great way to creating a change, they're there to represent you so getting your voice heard at a local level is definitely important.
We've also done a few beach clean-ups, like last year we did a few with the Semaphore Larges Dunes Group. Me and my friends thought let's do that, let's do a direct impact kind of day, we were all part of School Strike for Climate, but this was something outside of that. Striking is about 95% planning and organising so we thought why not just get our hands dirty for a bit and we connected with the community, so it was great to have that opportunity.
From there I also did a workshop with around 250 year nine students, which was pretty scary because I was only in year ten at the time. We talked about carbon footprint and becoming more of a conscious individual and a conscious consumer, understanding where your food is coming from, if it's local or if it's imported internationally and becoming more aware of that. We got a whole heap of food, and the students had to rank them from what they thought had the least to the most carbon footprint. That was really interesting because I don't think carbon footprint is a main issue that we talk about, the climate crisis just has so many issues and to unpack all of them would take a lot of time so just combatting this one with a group of year nine students was very beneficial I thought.
If you had one piece of advice for other young people who are looking to get involved in activism, whether it's climate based or in a different area, what would that be for someone entering that space?
I was fortunate enough to be on a panel with Craig Wilkins and Chris Daniel, some amazing people in Adelaide and when they were asked by the audience; what can we do? They both said do something, and as little as that may sound, it's big. Just starting to recycle even, starting to collect the soft plastics, little things like picking up a bit of rubbish, honestly, just do something because that inspires the rest of your peers and your family. I asked my mum; please can we just start a soft plastics bin? and here we are doing that now. My grandma’s washing plastic bags and reusing them, and that goes on to my uncle doing the same, we're seeing that spread and my grandma's friends are probably doing similar stuff because of her starting.
I wouldn't say it was easy to start off with, my dad loved plastic bags at the supermarket but now he can't go without his little reusable bags and he washes them each weekend, it's definitely a step up and it's definitely a challenge and I’m very privileged to have a supportive family to create that change.
Just look at what we've seen with Greta Thunberg starting striking at Parliament in Sweden, and here we are now in Australia doing what she started, one little thing can create a big impact (not to say Greta Thunberg’s strike was little). So that's all I can say really, just do something.
So now you're moving towards establishing a youth forum for high school age activists like yourself, why don't you tell us a bit about that and why that's something that you've decided to take on?
I decided to kickstart this youth forum because I feel like in South Australia at the moment there's not a lot of platforms for young people aged year ten to year 12 that are youth led for young people. You come to an age around year ten where you don't want to do workshops run by adults. It was definitely worth it when I was getting into it and kickstarting my passion, it definitely grew me, but I just feel like now who wants to listen to an adult, you know? I'm the change.
So I definitely felt that there should be a platform in Adelaide for like-minded students to come together. I also feel that debriefing and chatting and just discussing issues concerning young people is a great way of letting off steam, raising concerns and also just knowing that you're not the only one I guess.
It's also a great way for young people to share their thoughts about issues concerning them. I know that there's a heap of people I've met who aren't comfortable striking, which is totally OK, but then don't know where to start and with their incredible ideas and motives.
Do you have a message to end on for anyone who's maybe thinking about putting in an expression of interest and having a chat with you?
Yeah, I say just go for it, definitely. Feel all right doing it, don't do it if you feel uncomfortable and talk to your parents or school or a friend about it if you're feeling uncertain about joining. But if you think it's for you, definitely join up, that would awesome.
You can find an expression of interest form here or if you would like more information send an email to yacsa@yacsa.com.au and we will connect you with Amber.
