Climate action is the siren call for Aussies heading to the polls this week following the devastation that hit the Northern Rivers over the last few months, two years of the pandemic and the fires that preceded it. It has felt relentless. Surfer, activist and author, Lauren Hill, is voting in her first election and this election feels like a do or die moment in our history.
Originally from Barrier Island, Florida, you might remember Lauren from her film Pear Shaped that depicts the unsexy reality of being a female surfer. She has also featured in multiple Nathan Oldfield films, including that dreaming edit Church of the Open Sky as well as having written She Surf – a book that tracks the history of women’s surfing. You might also recognise Lauren’s voice from The Waterpeople podcast.
We’re seeing a surge of Climate 200 funded independents take on safe, inner city Liberal seats to try and upend the bipartisan failure on climate action. People like Zali Steggal, who claimed Tony Abbott’s seat on Sydney’s Northern Beaches in 2019, and whose campaign is along the lines of being environmentally progressive but economically conservative. But how can that actually work?
Lauren Hill has for many years been one of Australia’s most important feminist voices in surfing, but she frames her feminism in something called ‘ecofeminism’. Ecofeminism, Lauren says, “links the exploitation of nature with the oppression of women. It reveals the underlying systems of thought that allow us to treat both as dispensable commodities.” This means that changing the system of thought around gender can also change the systems of thought we have around our environment.
For surfers, this has a particular kind of urgency. Surfers are some of the closest witnesses to climate disasters and surfing culture is also in the midst of a shift away from the historic masculine domination of the sport and into a new, more inclusive identity. This uniquely positions surfers to play a key undertaking in transforming the system that is destroying the planet.
“As we found out with the recent floods in our area, we have so much to lose as surfers.” Lauren said.
“We’ve had nearly three months of polluted water and lots of us have gotten sick from it. A changing climate means more storm activity, which means more intense weather events – fire and flood – which will likely mean more waterways polluted with agricultural runoff, sewage and rubbish.
“Voting is the most impactful action we can all take this month. Voting with climate in mind.”
Lauren has voiced her support for comedian and Greens candidate for Richmond, Mandy Nolan, who has a real chance of taking the Northern Rivers seat. Mandy talks about the transformation needed in order to solve the climate crisis and how social justice and climate justice are both shackled by the capitalist system that is hinged on both the exploitation of our environment and the unpaid labour of women. So Mandy is campaigning to join the circus in Canberra:
“I’ve always identified very strongly as a feminist. Part of being a feminist for me in my personal politics is about making changes in the patriarchal system that enshrines privilege for a very small amount of the community.” Mandy said.
“It takes time for people to understand that how it is now is not how it has to be.”
Lauren also talks about change and the potential for swift change that we actually have. We have just eight years to reimagine a society that doesn’t depend on coal and gas before where we’re heading is too far past the point of return. This is going to have to take swift change, Lauren explained:
“You know how most of us are basically cyborgs, our iphones within reach at all times?” She said,
“The iPhone didn’t even exist in 2006 – just 16 years ago – and now many of us would struggle to work, navigate, communicate with family, or surf check without one. That’s swift change.”
“We often think of change as slow and laborious, but it can be incredibly rapid, if we have support from the top down and bottom up. I think the pandemic gave us a new benchmark for how swiftly things can change on a global scale.” Lauren said.
So, as we now go to the polls as surfers, the empowerment of women in the surf community and the political arena has the potential to see in swift transformation of our system from one of exploitation and relegation into one of inclusion, fairness and sustainability.
“We need deep systemic change and new storytelling – inclusive of women and Indigenous voices and perspectives – to guide us away from the old boy’s political club of fossil fuel handouts, and toward an inclusive culture that values life and the qualities that make it possible.” Lauren said.
Voices like Mandy’s, calling for more affordable housing, First Nations justice and gender equality as we fight rising floodwaters, fire and for the survival of our oceans.