CMI has a proud history of including and promoting Indigenous voices through its platforms, and public events. Our internal Indigenous Engagement Strategy further encourages our procurement of goods through Indigenous providers, where possible. With this objective in mind, we engaged the services of Yirra Miya, First Nations Creative Agency to create the lanyards for our 10th Australasian Summit.
Yirra Miya is a collaborative First Nations creative agency owned by Wiradjuri Torres Strait Islander yinaa – woman – Leticia Quince. Leticia weaves her own stories into all of her pieces, and this creative element was especially important for us as we strived to include Indigenous perspectives under each pillar of our Summit tagline this year: Reform, Repair & Race to 1.5C. We are delighted to share with you the story behind this year’s Summit lanyards, and encourage all delegates to keep and reuse these lanyards at the close of the event.
The lanyard artwork, called ‘Ngurambang wudhagarbinya (Listen to Country)’, shares people coming together, prioritising Caring for Country and our climate. Marking a decade of discussions, forward-thinking and change, this piece captures the journey we have embarked on to ensure we capture the voices and learnings of all people. It also honours the knowledge sharing of First Nations people of Australia to help aid, heal and care for Mother Earth as a collective.
This is represented through the elements building the holistic story on the lanyards including: stars, which represent looking after our atmosphere and knowledge sharing from past ancestors; mountains, which represent knowledge sharing through the gifts of Mother Earth to provide opportunities to continue moving forward; and connection and caring for Country, which is represented through the cross-hatching. The Creation lines throughout represent our changing environment and reflecting ways to help Mother Earth to continue evolving and growing.
Reform
Australia is currently undergoing the most substantial period of domestic climate policy reform in a decade, and alongside this is a historic referendum to include a First Nations Voice to Parliament in the constitution. CMI has continued to advocate for the inclusion of First Nations voices throughout the policy reform process, including our Indigenous partners in working group discussions, and supporting them to travel to events and round tables around Australia and the region. Current reforms are a staging post as we will need to deepen and broaden the guidance to encourage investors in climate solutions and urgent implementation of decarbonisation transition plans.
In our lanyard artwork the mountains represent knowledge sharing, and the stars represent the atmosphere, knowledge and advocacy passed on from generations who have already passed. As these policy reforms continue to evolve, so too does the knowledge that is shared amongst stakeholders. By listening to our Indigenous partners, we can learn from their extensive stewardship of Australian lands to come together in this urgent challenge.
Repair
Each day brings fresh revelations of the climate and biodiversity crisis and the reality that we need to do more than stop harming the balance of our climate and our environment but indeed work towards their repair. Not only do we need to stop emitting greenhouse gases, but equally remove as many legacy emissions as possible. One technology that we have right now is nature repair, protecting, regenerating and replanting country and, by doing so, building on the ethic of caring for Country that is central to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island culture.
We are also at a unique point in time where we have the opportunity to vote for the inclusion of an Indigenous Voice in the Constitution. To establish a First Nations Voice is to acknowledge a brutal history, and take a significant step along the path of repair by providing an additional opportunity for them to be heard. Listening to, and learning from our First Nations Partners is an essential collaboration for successful history, nature and climate repair.
These themes are represented in our lanyard by the leaves, which represent the task of caring for nature, revitalisation, healing and growth. These sit alongside cross-hatching to represent land, connection, and journey. The Summit convenes stakeholders from across Australia, and the region, around a thematic of repairing our environment and climate. We encourage delegates to connect with each other, to listen to each other’s unique experiences, and find opportunities to collaborate as we continue on this journey of climate, nature, and history repair together.
Race to 1.5C
As we reflect on a decade of climate achievement and failure, and look ahead to deeper reforms and stronger emission reduction targets needed to keep sight of the critical 1.5C warming goal under the Paris Agreement. Journey tracks throughout the lanyard artwork represent this reflection on the past decade, and the increasing pace of action required this decade. We know that this is the decade where we need to put in place the policies to secure a healthy, liveable planet.
Dotted along the lanyard are also meeting circles, and yarning circles. The Meeting Circles emphasise people coming together to work together, while the yarning circles represent knowledge sharing amongst a group. Together, they reflect on the time we need to take to sit, listen and learn through one another, further demonstrating the importance of coming together frequently throughout our climate journey. Just as we cannot silo nature, climate, history, economic, social repair and so on, we cannot silo ourselves as individual actors.
So, as we come together on this momentous occasion, we encourage you to use the lanyards as a prompt to connect with your fellow delegates and consider how you can best work together for greater action and investment, as we reform, repair and race to 1.5C.
The Artist, Leticia Quince, contributed to the authorship of this piece. More information about Leticia can be found here.
The Australasian Emissions Reduction Summit is the premier event for actors across the carbon value chain throughout the Australasian region. The 10th AER Summit is being held at the ICC Sydney across September 14 & 15. Limited spaces remain, register here.