00:00Once a site for gathering and the handing down of tradition and knowledge.
00:09Now not much of this beach remains.
00:12Gardens destroyed and sacred trees lay dead.
00:15Our grandfathers and our great grandfathers used to come here.
00:21Where the water is there now, we used to camp there.
00:24And the beach was used to be where the dead mangoes laying there.
00:29Lying at just 1.6 metres above sea level, Saibai Island and its neighbours are on the front line of climate change.
00:36When there's storms, the island shakes and a lot of water's coming in and out at night.
00:43And we see little bits and pieces of land going away, one by one.
00:48Mostly when it's high tide or king tide.
00:50If I'm standing here, water can be up here.
00:52For the past four years, Uncle Paul Kabai and other islanders have been fighting a landmark case against the federal government.
00:58arguing it has a duty of care to protect them from the rising seas.
01:03The government got to listen to what we are asking to reduce the gas emission.
01:10If we reduce that, we have a better future for our kids.
01:15The court travelled to the islands to witness the erosion of these gravestones firsthand.
01:25Locals like ten-year-old Shikaina are doing what they can to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
01:31She's raising money by collecting bottles for sandbags.
01:35This one I have cans and over this one I think about like a thousand maybe in here.
01:41When we get the money from the people, we're gonna buy sandbags to stick around the graveyard to protect the loved ones who were buried there.
01:50But she fears her people will one day need to leave the island.
01:55And that would be really sad for us because loved ones are buried here.
01:59And we don't want to lose the culture we've grown here.
02:04The landmark litigation has been financed through the NGO The Grata Fund, whose team met with the community late last year to talk through the possible outcomes.
02:13And I'm one of the lawyers on Uncle Paul and Uncle Popeye's legal team.
02:18This case is going to be globally significant if it wins.
02:22It will be saying that the Australian Government has to take steps to deal with the impacts of climate change on people in the Torres Strait
02:28and has to take steps to prevent it from getting worse.
02:31The Federal Government has acknowledged the Torres Strait Islands are vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
02:36But it says Australia can't prevent or mitigate these effects on its own.
02:41And the question of its duty of care is for the parliament to decide.
02:45Whatever the outcome of the case, locals here are going to continue to protect their homelands from the impacts of climate change.
02:53It's our land we're fighting.
02:56And it's our culture we're looking at.
03:00If we're gonna lose that culture, we lose everything.
03:06We do not rely on many other people.
03:10After that, we're working with the NGOs.
03:12We're working with the NGOs as well.
03:15Our teams are working with the NGOs in particular times.
03:18Our teams are working with NGOs, the NGOs at the NGOs, the NGOs on the 1955 side of the land.
03:21And there are spaces where they are working with NGOs, in particular, the NGOs are increasing on the peoples,
03:25they're working with NGOs, and other partners, and the NGOs.
03:27We do not rely on a national exclusiveness.
03:30And the NGOs about their own activities.
03:32And the NGOs is TOMB.
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