Pacific families affected first

Iam as white as they come. I’m the type of white that blends into the flash when you take a photo and turns tomato-red when I become slightly out of breath. I’ve got a Scottish surname and my family has the clan crest on our fireplace mantle.

To top it all off – I’m from Christchurch, the New Zealand city with an ethnic composition of

84.8 per cent people identifying as European or other in 2013.

As a climate activist, I do all I can to spread a message of conservation, action and consciousness. However, my role as a Pa¯ keha¯ climate activist is more complex.

The unholy marriage of capitalism and colonial imperialism has not only triggered the disastrous climate crisis in the Pacific, but it has also ensured that the voices of indigenous climate activists are not heard.

It is easy to be convinced that care for the earth is a Western concept, however, that’s hardly true – what Pa¯ keha¯ climate leaders call activism is survival for indigenous people.

For years, the science has been clear, but governments have failed to act. This affects our Pacific families first. Larger countries have the luxury of time, but our Pacific islands do not.

The climate crisis is a result of maintaining the colonial status quo; sustaining policies and leaders who love money but not you.

Young people are yet to realise the power they have when disrupting systems; young people are the most passionate about ending the climate crisis, but also manage not to show up when they are most needed: when it’s time to vote.

To truly achieve climate justice, young people need to do two things:

1 – vote

2 – vote in the interest of indigenous people. Indigenous communities will be hit harder and sooner by the impacts of climate change. Iwi and Hapu in New Zealand are concerned that their Urupa¯ , burial sites which are often near the coast, could be submerged or eroded. Islands are already sinking and cyclones are hitting them harder.

Tangata whenua’s way of life is threatened. Species which were previously hunted sustainably as traditional food sources, such as paua, are now threatened due to the changing climate. Iwi are already considering ‘‘what sort of plans need to be put in place to cope with the changes that are imminent’’, the Iwi Chairs Forum’s Climate Change Iwi Leaders Group spokesman, Mike Smith, told RNZ.

Kaitiakitanga, a taonga of the Tiriti o Waitangi, is the treatment of the environment according to the Ma¯ ori worldview in which we must ‘‘protect and nurture our environment and it will, in turn, protect and nurture us’’. This mindset is one unique to Te Ao Ma¯ ori and shows we have so much to learn.

In Brazil, Mariana Tobias, 71, a Macuxi Shaman, told The Guardian ‘‘The land is our mother. You plant, you take from her, you use her but you respect her, taking care of her.’’

The world of indigenous peoples involves a more sustainable mindset than the Western one we Pa¯ keha¯ have been brought up with.

Indigenous people are affected unfairly by climate change however, indigenous practices are key to mitigating the effects of it – it is time to let them take the lead.

White climate activists need to stop trying to be the voice for indigenous people; they need to step aside to hold the mic for indigenous people.

Mia Sutherland is an organiser of School Strike 4 Climate NZ. She wrote this column with the help of Shaneel Lal.