Indigenous Australians: First Nations woman one of seven global winners of prestigious Goldman prize for environmental activism

For Murrawah Johnson, the impacts of the climate crisis and the destruction of land to mine the fossil fuels that drive it are more than simple questions of atmospheric physics or environmental harm.

“What colonisation hasn’t already done, climate change will do in terms of finalising the assimilation process for First Nations people,” the 29-year-old Wirdi woman from Queensland says.

“[It is] totally destroying our ability to maintain a cultural identity, cultural existence and to be able to pass that on.”

Johnson is one of seven global winners of the prestigious Goldman prize for environmental activism – described as the Nobel for the environment movement - announced at a ceremony in San Francisco.