Climate Change Through Aboriginal Eyes

Uncle Gary Williams on changing seasons, shifting species and hope

This morning I had the privilege of meeting two remarkable people: Gumbaynggirr Elder Uncle Gary Williams and his wife Diedre Bear. We sat together in Nambucca Heads, a place that has carried stories, food, floods, families, and ceremony for thousands of years.

Uncle Gary told me he worked with my own Uncle Gavin back in the 1980s during the Land Rights movement and the establishment of NSW Land Councils. Two young men then, standing up for Country and Culture. Today, decades on, he’s still doing that work. Uncle Gary has dedicated much of his life to reviving and teaching Gumbaynggirr culture and language, and passing on knowledge that Australia desperately needs.

As we spoke and listened, one thing became clear: the climate crisis is hitting Gumbaynggirr Country hard. But Aboriginal Cultural Science holds answers we have only just begun to listen to.

When Uncle Gary talks about climate change, he doesn’t begin with CO₂ graphs or IPCC charts. He talks about observations of Country - the original dataset. He told me about the shifts in species and seasonal indicators, plants, cockatoos and animals that are out of alignment with the old patterns. He spoke about increasing floods and fires, not as isolated events, but as disruptions in the relationships that keep Country in balance.

This is Aboriginal Cultural Science. It's deep observation, long memory, intergenerational pattern recognition, intimate relationships with plants, waters, animals, and stars, and a worldview that sees humans not as managers of the land, but as family within it.

It’s not primitive. It’s not symbolic. It's science. And it is rigorous.

And here's the thing, Aboriginal Cultural Science doesn’t need to divide us; it is an invitation. Whether we're black or white, rural or urban, newly arrived or many generations deep, Cultural Science can help all of us understand and adapt to a changing climate.

Australia needs more than policies, machines, models, and engineering. We need relationships. We need the wisdom of people like Uncle Gary who have watched these shifts over decades and hold knowledge that sits in the land itself.

Leaving Uncle Gary and Diedre today, and cycling north, I felt the same thing I feel in every community on my #eBike4Australia journey: humility, gratitude and hope.

The climate crisis is devastating Country in ways our systems barely register. But the knowledge to read, heal, and adapt to these changes is with us - in people who have cared for this continent longer than any civilisation on Earth.

We need to listen. We need to act. We need to walk - and ride - together.

Uncle Gary and Diedre with me in Nambucca Heads.