‘It’s not viable any more’: global heating sparks first climate class action by Indigenous Australians

Aunty McRose Elu at the federal court of Australia in Melbourne. She is a member of the first class action on climate harms brought by Indigenous Australians. Photograph: Morgan Hancock/AAP

“We cannot garden any more. They have to go far away to get the seafood,” says Aunty McRose Elu of life on Saibai Island in the Torres Strait. All of the effects [of climate change] on the islands changes the life of our people.

“They live in fear but also curiosity about what will happen because they can see the shorelines are all eroded.”