My job is important, rewarding and shouldn't exist. As a proud Yanyuwa and Garawa man from Borroloola, about 600km south-east from Darwin, I am no stranger to the impacts of climate change, or the unanswered calls for climate justice.
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For thousands of years, my people have lived off the land and the stories it tells us. Now, our country is telling us that it's hurt. The seasons are out of balance, and the information it tells us no longer lines up.
Before, when the wattle bloomed in the cool season, it told us the dugongs and turtles would be fat to feed us. Now, they bloom out of season.
Before, we'd see marching crabs in the thousands scuttle across our beaches but now we don't see that. The mudskippers in the mangroves are turning into a rare site. They are disappearing.
My job is a community organiser with Seed Mob. We connect and empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people to take action together to protect our land, water, communities and our future.
For six years, we were a program of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition. Now, Seed Mob is on the cusp of becoming the first and only Indigenous-led independent environmental organisation in Australia. We are hundreds of volunteers, backed by nearly 40,000 supporters, carrying on the legacy of our ancestors.
We see rising sea levels in the Torres Strait as well as bushfires, droughts, heat waves and floods across our country. We see remote communities struggle to access safe housing and basic human services like health, education and clean drinking water.
Like me, many of our mob have seen irreversible damage to sacred sites at the hands of mining companies as they dig up coal, oil gas and other minerals.
As the sea levels are rising, so are we. We are listening to our country and using the knowledge of our ancestors. We do our best to empower our mob with the tools, plans and support to build strong, resilient and sustainable communities.
Our elders are proud of us. Our youngsters learn from us. And we become better connected to one another, and to country. My job has been created from mismanagement of country and burning fossil fuels. I rise because it's my right, and my responsibility.
Your job, no matter your race, age, gender, bank balance or post code, is to rise beside me. To stand up for climate action, and for climate justice. We all live here together.
To find out how, visit shorturl.at/dxLM7
Nicholas Milyari Fitzpatrick is Seed Mob's Remote Community Organiser in the Northern Territory.
