In 2022 the Aboriginal community of Cabbage Tree Island on the New South Wales north coast suffered immense damage after floodwaters inundated the island - displacing almost 200 residents from their homes.
Four years later the community is still picking up the pieces.
"We're rebuilding, but our community is still living in temporary accommodation", Kylie Jacky, chair of the Jali Local Aboriginal Land Council told NITV.
"Our pathway back home was always there. It was just very unfortunate unilateral dis-empowerment processes and decision making that occurred."
Initially the state government said that the community would not be rebuilt. But after advocacy from the Jali Local Aboriginal Land Council, there are now plans to renovate and retrofit homes with flood-resilient materials.
Bringing community advocacy to the UN
The land council was supported to take eight delegates to New York CITY and address the the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
The group took the opportunity address the forum on issues important to Nyangbul Bundjalung, such as the ongoing displacement of residents and what changes are need to support culturally informed disaster recovery in Australia.
"We were very much encouraged by other Indigenous peoples around the world that our call for actions, and that our community's plight and resilience was worth bringing to the United Nations forum," Ms Jacky said.
Throughout their time in New York, Jali delegates connected with Indigenous representatives from Hawaii, West Papua, Indonesia, New Caledonia and New Zealand.
Ms Jacky says their experiences shared similarities, especially in feeling "really disempowered around agency and self-determination around how we respond and recover from [natural diasters]".
They also had meetings with Justin Mohamed, Australia's inaugural Ambassador for First Nations People, and UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Dr. Albert K. Barume.
Jali delegates invited Dr Barume to visit Cabbage Tree Island during his next Australian visit in November.
They want the Special Rapporteur to consider, "structural barriers that our community was confronted with in our plight to return and rebuild", in his assessment of Australia's compliance with international human rights obligations.
A pathway forward
For Ms Jacky, addressing the United Nations Permanent Forum is not the end of the road.
"There's some real work to be done around possibly advocating for legislative change in New South Wales", she said.
"Ensuring that frameworks or policies are developed to manage future natural disasters. That our peoples are [recognised as] right holders and are front and centre in that decision making."
