My Roots

My Perspective: My Roots and Foundations

I am currently a PhD candidate at the University of Technology, Sydney. I am undertaking research in Education and how to teach students about the climate crisis in a way that does not disempower and depress them. My journey to where I am today stems from a personal narrative about my passion for climate justice and my struggle with activist burnout while working for environmental non-governmental organisations (eNGOs). I grew up on Gadigal land in Sydney, in a large, white, Anglo-Saxon Catholic family, where I attended a private girls’ school on the North Shore—a sheltered and monocultural environment. After finishing university, I travelled to South America to volunteer at various animal rescue centres and witnessed the destruction of land and wildlife habitats firsthand. Feeling hopeless and angry after this experience, I volunteered for a youth climate justice group, joining passionate young Australians. Through this involvement, I recognised that Australia’s ecological movement often treats nature as a commodity rather than an integral part of the human experience and community well-being (Klein, 2014; Refahi, 2021).  Yet, from my perspective, I have seen that the climate crisis cannot be separated from the human experience. I spent three years working for eNGOs, but I became severely burnt out.