It’s perhaps one of the biggest ecological and political questions of our time: how do we honour and protect our planet through understanding its natural and traditional cycles of rejuvenation, while still embracing modern technologies and sciences of the 21st century?
On the one hand, hundreds of years of colonisation and intensive farming has meant our understanding of the natural cycles of the earth have been ignored. On the other, the pace of our world requires an equally frantic pace of production. So what’s the answer? How do we advance without destroying what we have?
This is the question that Josh Gilbert — climate and Indigenous agriculture activist — has been contemplating his whole life, ever since riding the back of a tractor as a small child on Worimi country, Gloucester Mountains, NSW. It’s only now that the rest of the country — and perhaps the world — is beginning to realise his questions may hold the answers.
Three different worlds combine
As one of the most recognised and awarded voices in Indigenous agriculture and conservation in Australia, it’s a surprising joy to find a conversation with Gilbert is like being invited into a cosy country kitchen and sharing a cuppa.
When you’s Young Conservationist of the Year, the 2017 ACT Young Australian of the Year Finalist, is a TEDx presenter and was a part of Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project. He’s also Indigenous Co-Chair of Reconciliation NSW and on the boards of Indigenous Business Australia, the Aboriginal Housing Office and the Australian Conservation Foundation. And yet, when you speak with him, there’s an immediate sense of humility.
