HOME TRUTHS: Niamh

Niamh is a seventeen year-old School Strike 4 Climate activist living in
Dja Dja Wurrung country, Castlemaine. While lockdown has given her time to
read and to walk in the bush, she misses the community connection and sense
of empowerment provided by her passion – collective protest and political
activism.

Name: Niamh

Age: 17

Lives in: Castlemaine on Dja Dja Wurrung country

Please finish this sentence – I feel at home when … I am surrounded by people I love.

What does home mean to you? Has this changed since the COVID-19 pandemic?

Home is a place where I can be myself, somewhere I feel safe, loved and valued with people who I can trust. For me, COVID-19 has brought to light the value of having a safe, loving home that is there for you during tough times. 

Where’s home for you?

For my entire life I have lived on Dja Dja Wurrung country, in Castlemaine. I live with my family in a house that backs onto the bush. What makes it home is the land and the community that I am surrounded by here. Going for walks in the bush behind my house brings me joy. The community that I share here, gives me help, support and teaches me how to advocate for a better world. 

Forever part of what I call home will be in Castlemaine, but maybe next year home will also be on Wurundjeri country in Melbourne. After that, who knows where home will end up being?

What have you lost because of lockdown? Is there anything you’ve gained?

COVID-19 took away certainty. 2020 for me is year 12, my last year of high school, and with that came a plan for how my year would look. But the pandemic uprooted it all and threw me and every other student into online learning, changing dates, elongating the school year and bringing uncertainty to it all.

Time, something I am often short of, was one of the good things that came with lockdown. With school work and activism, SRC and School Strike 4 Climate, I rarely get downtime to spend. Lockdown has given me the time to get things done and also to relax. In the first lockdown I managed to read 18 books and go for many walks, which I was very grateful to be able to do.

What’s the first thing you’ll do when there are no restrictions at all?

What I really want to do is protest. During the pandemic there have been many social injustices brought to light and also continuing ones, from the inaction of the government on Black Lives Matter to the starting of the corrupt COVID-recovery commission, which does not want to plan a safe, renewable future. Protesting against these injustices is such an empowering feeling. There is a connection between everyone at a protest, and that together you are fighting against the injustices in this world brings so much hope. I miss being in that moment when you feel you can change the world.

Interview Maria O’Dwyer Illustration Janelle Barone