Australia

Torres Strait Islanders

Yolngu People

Wangan and Jagalingou

The indigenous peoples in Australia

The communities all over Australia are forced to migrate because of climate change. Indigenous Australians are particularly at risk of climate change effects due to their location and vulnerability intensified by social and economic factors.

Since 2018 evidence has been collected on evacuation and temporary displacement made by climate change-sensitive weather-related disasters such as severe fire events in New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia - all have required community evacuations.

Australia is the only Commonwealth nation that doesn’t have a treaty with its Indigenous people.

This is a major concern because the absence of a treaty suggests an ongoing denial of the existence, prior occupation and dispossession of Indigenous people in Australia and highlights a lack of engagement and relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. A treaty in Australia could recognise Indigenous people’s history and prior occupation of this land, as well as the injustices many have endured. It could also offer a platform for addressing those injustices and help to establish a path forward based upon mutual goals, rather than ones imposed upon Indigenous people. They are facing a lot of problems right now because of this (Indigenous Australians represent the world’s longest continuous living culture: 2.5% of Australian population - in Northern Australia the percentage rises to around a third - are indigenous).

Loss of meeting places on rivers during millennium drought have profoundly affected social and emotional well-being of the indigenous groups.

They are disproportionately impacted by mining industries (e.g. blasting on sacred sites, pollution) close to their land.

Power imbalance, social and legal imbalance, poverty are a huge part of their lives each day.

Mining and the processing of natural resources impacts the environment, health and social elements - these are not considered fully by mining companies, consent is not always given by the communities.

Australia

The indigenous peoples in Australia

How to help