The Wik people of western Cape York often can't follow their traditional routes because "huge salt water lakes" appear where they hadn't before, and they say climate change is the obvious culprit.
Bruce Martin, a Wik-Nagthan man, says the disruption from rising sea levels and other impacts is not only damaging the ecosystems of the far north but also the cultures of the Indigenous people who inhabit the region.
The death of over 1000 kilometres of mangrove forests along the Gulf of Carpentaria has been blamed on extreme conditions including record temperatures. Vision courtesy James Cook University.
"If we're not able to move on the same routes as we have for generations, obviously it affects our songs and ceremonies," Mr Martin said. "It also affects our cultural resilience and our ability to pass it down to the future."
Elsewhere, erosion is cutting deeply into the coast, with islanders telling Donna Green, a climate researcher at the University of NSW, "they have had to walk along the shoreline after a king tide looking for and picking up bones of their ancestors" after graveyards were exposed.
The fate of remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders is one focus of a new report, Health and Climate Change: From Townsville to Tuvalu - released by the Global Health Alliance Australia on Wednesday.
The 47 groups making up the alliance say people across Australia and the Pacific are already suffering from rising temperatures and altered weather patterns such as stronger cyclones - and the health and other threats are going to get worse.
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| A king tide erodes a graveyard in the Torres Strait. Credit: Donna Green |
For instance, Nipah, a bat-borne virus that has been fatal to pigs and humans in south-east Asia, is among the diseases expected to become established in northern Australia.
Two fruit bat species in Australia are closely related to two bat species that now carry the disease. The disease's introduction to Australia "would present substantial risks to humans, pigs and horses", the report said.
| Nipah virus spread Areas in red show the most optimistic 2050 scenario for the potential additional range of the Henipavirus carried by fruit bats.  |
| Source: Global Health Alliance Australia |
While all populations are likely to become less resilient over time to adverse impacts of climate change, some groups such as women, children and the elderly are more vulnerable. For many Indigenous populations, the "threat is even more prevalent", the report said.
The risks include exacerbating the relatively poor health of existing communities. Climate change, though, also puts at risk food stocks, hurts populations of species of totemic significance and can undermine coastal or riverine locations where they live.
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| Warning: Bruce Martin. |
One example was the huge forest die back that killed up to 1000 kilometres of mangroves along the Gulf of Carpentaria in 2016, wiping important nurseries for totemic and food fish for local population.
Salt-water inundation is also affecting taro roots, sometimes wiping out the important food source, Professor Green said.
That salt water can also "affect the whole ecosystem", from small skinks, lizards and frogs all the way up to apex predators, Mr Martin said. "It's already started happening."
'Listening to the earth'
For some of the Wik, the first contact with Europeans did not happen until as recently as 1975, so "people know what it was like" before the changes, Mr Martin said.
As an indicator of close connections to country, the local word for the timing of a child's birth is "Aarngay", meaning "first listened to the earth", he said.
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| People being evacuated from Groote Eylandt and the McArthur River Mine airfield near Borroloola in the Northern Territory ahead of Cyclone Trevor last March. Credit: ADF |
Professor Green said many groups have told her "they have a feeling of sadness" because they're unable to carry out their obligations to care for their land.
While Indigenous people can be remarkably resilient to temperature changes - central Australians have adapted to extremes ranging from about zero to "the early 50s" - limits could be crossed if the mercury keeps rising.
"My concern is we're reaching a turning point," Mr Martin said.
Darwin, for instance, could experience 35-degree or warmer days for the equivalent of nine months a year amid future warming, with humidity levels making it "intolerable" for many, Professor Green said.
Mr Martin said that, while Australians like to think they stand for a "fair go", there was little fairness in the disproportionate effects a warming world would have on their communities.
"Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders will be impacted unfairly because they have contributed very little to global warming," he said.
"Things are changing outside our experience and we'll be left to deal with it."
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| Mangrove forests were wiped out along a 1000-kilometre stretch of the northern Australian coast in 2016. Credit: Norman Duke |
Links
- Health and Climate Change in Australia and the Asia Pacific Region: From Townsville to Tuvalu
- Extreme Weather Caused By Climate Change Has Damaged 45% Of Australia’s Coastal Habitat
- 'I’m Seeing It Disappear Before My Eyes': Crisis Point In Australia's Wet Tropics
- How Much Has Tasmania's Climate Changed In The 100 Years To Now?
- Barwon-Darling River Faces 'Collapse' From Government Mistakes: Report
- 'No Limits': Victoria's Biggest Solar Farm Paves Way For More
- Protest Art: Rallying Cry Or Elegy For The Black-Throated Finch?
- Great Barrier Reef Authority Urges 'Fastest Possible Action' On Emissions
- Drought Now Officially Our Worst On Record
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