Climate Adaptation is a Relationship, Not a Project
- Gregory Andrews
- 4 hours ago
- 3 min read
How First Nations wisdom and leadership can guide Australia through the climate crisis.
Just after dawn this morning, I sat in Newtown with my Aboriginal brother Lee beneath the “I Have A Dream” and Aboriginal Flag mural on King Street. The sun was low, the air was warming, and we were just two fellas sitting in the shadow of a truth we both know: Australia will not get through climate change without First Nations wisdom and leadership.
The Climate Crisis Isn’t Coming. It’s Here.
Every community I ride through knows it. Heatwaves are longer. Floods are more violent. Droughts come harsher. Insurance companies are pulling out of whole regions. And communities that have always been vulnerable - remote, regional, low-income, and especially First Nations - are being hit hardest.
But Australia seems to be trying to “adapt” like it’s an engineering project. Put up a seawall here. Move a school there. Throw a resilience fund grant at someone and call it a day.
Yet here in Australia, we have an intapped superpower. The oldest living cultures on Earth have adapted to Country here for over 65,000 years. Our ancestors survived ice ages, megafauna, rising and falling seas, and climate swings - because adaptation wasn’t a project. It was a relationship.
This is What We’ve Forgotten
From an Aboriginal perspective, Country isn’t a resource. It's family. Land, water, air, plants, animals, spirits, and people are all one. We’re together as kin. When one of us suffers, we all do.
Climate change isn't just a science or infrastructure issue. It is cultural disconnection.
What Happens When First Nations Leadership is Centred
When First Nations people are included and can lead climate adaptation:
• Land management gets smarter and more sustainable.
• Fire regimes become safer and more regenerative.
• Biodiversity strengthens because caring for Country restores balance.
• Communities adapt faster because decisions are made locally, not in ministerial offices.
• Young people gain purpose, dignity, and work grounded in identity and belonging
And perhaps most importantly, the healing goes both ways - Country and people, together.
But Right Now, the System is Blocking Us
The default setting of Australian planning and climate policy is still colonial. It consults after decisions are made. It hires First Nations expertise but doesn’t shift power. It funds short-term projects instead of long-term cultural governance. It invites Aboriginal leaders to speak at conferences, but not to co-author strategies.
We can’t keep doing this, if Australia really wants climate safety. We need to move from consulting First Nations people to walking together. That means:
• First Nations communities empowered to make adaptation decisions.
• Funding that goes directly to Country-based organisations.
• Cultural governance embedded into planning, not added as a footnote.
• Respecting cultural knowledge as science, not “storytelling”.
This is Why I’m Riding to AlterCOP 30
I’m riding to Brisbane to say something simple and true: Australia wont not survive climate change without First Nations inclusion and leadership. Not morally, culturally, ecologically, or economically.
As Lee and I sat under that mural, and the shadows shifted over the black, red and yellow, it felt like a reminder - and a responsibility. The dream is not something we chase. It’s something we walk - and in my case, ride - into being.
I'm riding for Climate, Country, and Hope.
See you on the road.
