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Sabyah fights for the future



In November and December 2019, and then July 2020, I filmed and recorded Sabyah as part of a documentary project directed by Irja von Bernstorff, for german TV series and a feature film.


The series is about young people in different parts of the world fighting to protect their local environments, and when I met Sabyah she was living in northern Queensland, not far from Adani's Carmichael Mine site and coal export terminal.


I met Sabyah at Camp Binbee, a remote camp of anti-coal activists engaging in non-violent direct action to slow down and hopefully stop the construction of the Carmichael Mine and the railroad Adani is attempting to build to transport the Galilee Basin coal.


Sabyah was the only young person in her town involved in the fight for a safe future, and was being socially ostracised by many of the other young people. We filmed her efforts to engage her classmates in her activism, and all the challenges that presented. It was tough for her, the area she lived in was super conservative, and she was seen as a radical outsider, with very few people apart from the Camp Binbee activists and her mum to tell her she was doing the right thing. Many people, let alone kids, would have given up long before we got there.


This photo is taken near Nimbin in July 2020, where Sabyah had moved in early 2020. She's an amazing young person and I was so excited and privileged to be part of this project. The series and film comes out soon.

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