ACCIDENTAL ACTIVISTS

What makes a person fight for a cause? Meet a surfer, a miner and a farmer who've all gone rogue – with reason.

- MEGAN HOLBECK

THIS IS A STORY of three Aussie environmental activists and their pathways into caring. It’s about where they started and how they’ve grown, the work they’ve done and the changes they’ve made to their patch of the world. It’s about environment and community helping to protect one and build the other. And, most of all, it’s about connection and action, about how caring for the world and people transforms helplessness into power and builds skills, purpose and community.

The diversity of activism covers everything from directaction blockades to High Court challenges and grass-roots education. But although the backgrounds and skillsets of those involved vary, their passion doesn’t.

SALLY HUNTER, A farmer from Narrabri in New South Wales, established Geni.Energy, a community-energy company, after approval was given for a coal-seam gas field in the Pilliga Forest near where she lives. As with many others, the path into activism began with a deep connection to the natural world.

At first the connection was specific, centred on one area of interest, but it grew into a broader stewardship. As knowledge and connection grew, so too did her understanding of the threat, until there was no option but to act.

It was similar for Scott Jordan, whose patch of the world is the 4950sq.km takayna/Tarkine rainforest in north-western lutruwita/Tasmania. Absorbing the beauty and importance of this huge expanse takes time: it’s difficult to get perspective, understanding or a jaw-dropping view when you're enveloped in wet foliage.