♪ [ Men chanting ] ♪ -If you go into any high school, most kids my age would tell you that climate change is their biggest worry.

-We wasted so much time.

-How do people keep talking about our genocide like it's nothing?

[ Indistinct shouting ] ♪ -Hopelessness is useless!

-We're not going to let them stand by and just talk the talk.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ -My name is Lillian Balfour.

I'm 15, and I go to Thames High School, which is the local one about 10 minutes away from where I live.

Thames is a sleepy, little town where some cool stuff happens.

[ Chuckles ] My mom owns a shop called The Sewing Box on the local main street.

My dad works at the Council, and there's really lovely scenery.

We're right by the sea and the bush, which I think is pretty special.

♪ -I've grown up in Thames my whole life, since I was 1.

I can't really remember anything else, and I just can't imagine living anywhere else either.

Give me the camera.

Where's the off button?

I have to remember that even though I think I'm like a normal human being, I'm actually an octopus... [ Laughter ] ...because they're so weird and random, and I'm also very weird and do eight things at once and super random.

There are a lot of things going on in my brain, yes.

♪ ♪ Well, Thames is a really low-lying town.

The main street and the shops and the school is all really close to sea level.

With sea level rise, everything that's not on the hills is going to be flooded, so it's all just going to be underwater.

-It is worrying for me how people living here aren't realizing that as fast as I think everyone should be.

♪ -Sandra Goudie, the mayor of the Thames-Coromandel District, is rejecting a push to get local authorities to sign up to a declaration on climate change.

-By signing the declaration or not, you can still be liable for either action or inaction.

-And what is your view on climate change?

-The climate changes all the time, so my view is that we have risk and resilience methods that we need to deal with, and we deal with them currently.

-Alright, but you personally don't want to be part of it, but you do believe in climate change, that climate change is happening and that your Council needs to deal with the fallout from that?

-I haven't seen better tools.

-So you do believe climate change is happening, though?

-Haven't seen that either.

-Do you believe climate change is happening?

-I haven't made a response to that question at all.

-But I'm asking you.

-And I'm not about to.

-Why not?

-Well, I don't have to.

♪ ♪ -I first heard about something called climate change or global warming.

Apparently, that was something humans had created by our way of living.

-Hearing Greta Thunberg's TED Talk, it was like quite late, and my mom showed me.

And she was like, "I don't really want to show you this because I know you're going to get upset."

And then I watched it, and I did get upset.

-So why are we not reducing our emissions?

Why are they, in fact, still increasing?

Are we knowingly causing a mass extinction?

-I mean, I knew it was a thing before that, but I didn't realize how big it was until then.

-She was talking to me about it, and we were going, "Wow, we really have to do something in Thames."

And she was like, "I'm going to do a march.

I'm going to march for climate action."

And I was going, "Oh, is that going to work?

Is that -- Are people actually going to do that?"

Helena found out about the New Zealand movement and then, first e-mailed Sophie through that.

♪ ♪ -I'm Sophie Handford.

I'm 18, and I live in Paekakariki on the Kapiti Coast.

And I'm one of the National Coordinators of the School Strike 4 Climate movement in New Zealand.

It feels like one of 6 trillion things that I do.

♪ Because -- I don't have time to clean my room, you know?

Who has time to clean their room?

This is the real behind-the-scenes.

Almost everything I'm doing has that element of the climate crisis and climate change.

It's always there.

At the end of last year, my teacher added me to a Facebook group of young environmental activists from across the country, and from there, I saw a post around the potential of a strike on March 15th on the Global Strike Day.

I took that a step further and said we're going to do it, rallied a few people together.

And we jumped on a video call that night and, by the next morning, had a Facebook and Instagram and a website up and running.

So it all happened very fast, and we've gone through a rapid period of growth in such a short amount of time.

♪ ♪ -This is so embarrassing.

I think it was quite gradual.

I can't exactly pinpoint what did it and what fully switched me over into some capitalist-hating activist.

It wasn't the hope in the brighter future da-da-da that switched me on.

It was all of the negatives, all of the science, which we were reading at school and whatnot, and knowing that things aren't good.

If you're going to agree that under the current path we're all going to end up dying, the question then becomes, do you want to sit down and die, or do you want to stand up and fight it?

♪ ♪ -It's okay.

-Do you think everyone's here?

Can I, like, talk to everyone?

-I think you should do that, yeah.

-Okay, okay.

It's important to have one in Thames because it shows that this isn't just going to affect the people in Auckland, and it's not just going to affect the people in my town.

It's not just going to affect the people in Europe.

It's going to affect everyone.

-Global action!

-Global action!

-I don't think location should determine whether you can stand up and what you believe in.

[ Lively, indistinct conversation, cheering ] ♪ -So you guys are going to take this one over all on your own.

Hey, hey, ho, ho, climate change has got to go!

-Hey, hey, ho, ho, climate change has got to go!

Hey, hey, ho, ho.

-The first march was unlike anything I ever expected it to be.

♪ As people started rolling in, I just remember being like, "What?"

[ All chanting ] -What do we want?!

-I think we underestimated the size of how big the strike was going to be, and we were going so fast because everyone was, like, in the groove, like boom, boom, boom.

And we were like, you know, halfway down [indistinct] and it had been 5 minutes.

And the march was supposed to take 45 minutes.

-No more coal!

No more oil!

Keep the carbon in the soil!

No more coal!

No more oil!

-You know, we got to Parliament, and there were people at Parliament.

And it was just so amazing.

Like, I guess that was when we kind of realized our power.

We did this.

We mobilized this many people.

The power is really in those thousands of people that show up on the day.

-I was sad and angry at the things that were happening or not happening, but now I don't really feel that emotion anymore because I have, like, transformed that anger into action, so yeah.

-I love you!

-[ Laughs ] -No, start again.

Start again.

-Move, I need to introduce myself.

Hi, this is my first video log for the climate strike movie.

-For the climate strike movie?

-This is real.

This is good footage.

♪ [ Laughs ] I just love this store because $2 shops are pretty much where you get everything you need, really.

I tried to knit for a little bit, but it didn't work out.

I'm always more into sewing.

Just the frugalness of it all is comforting, and no one is going to judge for you shopping from a $2 shop because everyone shops from a $2 shop.

Since the beginning of humanity has been debated whether the world would end in fire or ice, but for me, in my homeland, my village and my people, it'll end in the combination of both.

It will end in water.

Climate change has caused the sea levels in Samoan villages to rise to the doorsteps, has caused Samoan villages to be flooded, has caused Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands to need to be evacuated, or Fijian villages have to be relocated.

Pasifika is on the front line of the fight against climate change, while South Auckland is the most heavily populated Pasifika in the whole world.

But there's no secret that Southside and the Pacific is almost never included in these conversations about climate change.

I'm from Samoa.

The Samoan community in New Zealand, especially in South Auckland, is pretty tight-knit.

It's kind of the idea of the village that we have in the Pacific Islands, all part of one village.

I always went to, like, open mic spaces, and a lot of indigenous Pasifika poets who exist in Auckland, mentored me.

And they've kind of, like...

They were my first view of a different way of being Pasifika person.

When I kind of went through that decolonization process, a lot of these spoken-word artists were sharing things about the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Like, of course, I was just like, "This is crazy.

Why are they doing this?"

Something about it made me want to research it, and then it came up with this website of the 10 most endangered countries in the world.

I clicked on it, and I was so surprised because it was like Kiribati, Tuvalu.

It was like all these Pacific Islander countries, and I was like, "How come I've never heard of this?

Why are they endangered?

How could they be endangered?"

Everyone fears to be in opposition, but they would rather speak over us than hand us a mic.

They ignore how climate change is Pacific genocide.

I tried my best to educate myself on climate change.

That's how I got into environmentalist spaces, but then I was going to these climate change spaces where it was just, like, a bunch of white people talking about like, "Go vegan.

Buy electric cars.

If you're not doing this, it's not good enough.

You're not doing enough."

And I struggled with that a long time because I was just like, "I'm not doing enough."

-Candidate information.

Let's find me.

What?

[ Chuckles ] I am running for Council because I didn't really see anyone truly championing the climate crisis and mitigating that.

We know that we have to halve our emissions in the next 10 years.

In that window of time, we have to act, you know.

It was 11 years.

Now, it's 10, and it'll become 9.

And it'll eventually become a month.

I'm just really afraid that we get to that point and be like, "We wasted so much time."

♪ ♪ -My view on morning Thames on a cold day.

Okay, so had a discussion at the dinner table about careers and doing well in school.

Like, they expect me to be a politician or not necessarily that, but being really out there and a big influencer, when I don't really want to do that.

But I don't know what else to do because I want to make a difference.

But it seems like it's just fruitless because just there's so many things wrong, and I don't know how to make them right.

I don't know what to do.

♪ ♪ -Yeah, it's the best being with so many people who had such a shared energy, I guess.

Oh, here comes the water.

♪ [ Laughs ] ♪ We finally all met, all the School Strike organizers in Muriwai at the beach for a week and had a camp to strategize, plan, get to know each other, have some fun.

-[ Indistinct ] -I remember, like, the first time Sophie talked about it.

She was like, "Oh, you know, there's a potential for us to meet up at some sort of training camp."

And I was like, "Oh, that's never going to happen that some kid from Thames is ever going to be able to get to Wellington for something like that."

And then we got accepted into it, and then I was really blown away.

[ Laughter, indistinct conversation ] -Like, even in the first night, people were having conversations about some of their deepest fears and stuff because everyone felt so safe and welcome.

-We want to do a series of photos, right, like that's... -Yeah.

-[ Indistinct ] -It should be a series of photos.

-Yeah.

-If It's yellow rain jackets and everything else is, like, pretty much gray, that would be really cool symbolism.

-Yeah.

-Like, SOS, but it could be, like, SOP, like Save Our Planet.

We could all lie [indistinct].

-Yeah.

-One could be a video.

Like, the message could be a video, and the countdown could be photos?

-If we all have the yellow jackets on, and then we lie face down on the ground in rows, that would be, like, a graveyard.

♪ -Okay, let's go in.

♪ ♪ ♪ -I strike because we've spent too long doing nothing.

-Why?

Because we have such a privilege, and we have the responsibility.

-Why?

Because it's my aim to do everything I can to sustain this world.

-We can do something to make a change.

♪ -When we talked about how we feel about climate change, it was really, really powerful.

Things that we all experienced, guilt and grief and fear.

And I think we all agreed that sometimes we just have to have a break from being an activist and just be a teenager.

♪ ♪ -She is just 16 years old, and our next guest has a message for the world's leaders, "Climate change is killing Pasifika people."

Please welcome Aigagalefili.

[ Cheers and applause ] -Welcome.

-Do you think that's the key thing missing in the conversation about climate change, is the voices of the people that are being affected by it the most?

-Yeah, definitely.

I mean, an example of that was the student climate strike.

The first climate strike was held actually on the first day of Polyfest, which is the biggest Pasifika festival in New Zealand.

And South Auckland schools, predominantly brown schools, often participate in that.

So we kind of had to ask, who are the people making these decisions, and why are there no brown voices in these conversations on these committees when this issue is affecting us and our families and our homelands?

-That's so true.

-We got rightfully called out for not having enough diversity within the School Strike 4 Climate.

So we called an emergency national meeting, and everyone shared how they thought that what was said was true and was fair criticism.

And then, we moved to try and connect with them.

I'm Maori myself.

Now, I'd always kind of talk to, like, an inside joke with some of my Maori mates that the School Strike 4 Climate is so white, but to have it actually called out on national television, that made it a bit more of a big thing, huh?

♪ -What up, so some new people today.

That's great to see.

-At the beginning, SS4C thought that we wanted to be a part of SS4C, and I knew in my head.

I was like, "No, we can't because like we've said so many times, it has to be us telling our story."

We can't be brown tokens.

I'm so sick of being a brown token.

I don't want to be it anymore, but then I can't let my emotions get in the way of what needs to be done.

-Right, what about the Harbor Bridge?

-So is your guys' first priority trying to get out to a square, or are you definitely changing the location?

-Well, we're just discussing now what we want, yeah.

-Sweet.

-Basically, I'm just hoping to connect with them and share our passion for the environment and for the protection of the country we love because it is so important that this is everyone's movement.

We're also, I think, missing out on huge amounts of students who could be striking from South Auckland.

It is mainly schools in Central Auckland that are striking at the moment.

So getting in contact with this community, and surely we can smooth over what was done badly and now get more kids striking, get more kids engaged, save the planet.

-I knew that for a lot of the brown people knowing since they're not used to climate change discussions being about us, it would have been hard for them to speak.

I think something that's a main priority for us is to declare an emergency on Pacific genocide that climate change causes.

We can't expect SS4C to understand, like, all the nuance things that come with living in South Auckland, and it was really important for us, like I said, to be kids from the hood doing it for kids for the hood.

♪ ♪ -Oh, I love this place.

Dad, do you think I'm stubborn?

-Absolutely.

-What makes me stubborn?

-Well, once you've made up your mind, that's it.

-You're stubborn like that as well, though.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

-Well, there you go.

-And I still don't know how much of me doing this, like all this environmental stuff, I don't know how much of it is me trying to do something good, or me stopping myself from feeling terrible about doing nothing.

Guilt definitely motivates me, yeah.

I think I get a lot done because of the pressure I put on myself, and I wouldn't do as much if I didn't do that.

I get really scared, and then I think I have to do more, even when I'm doing a lot already.

And then, I think about, like, Greta and Sophie and how much more they do than me, and that makes me really angry at myself.

And in some ways, I hate it, like when I have a weekend or I have a day off, and I never do anything.

I just, like, bake muffins and read, and then I feel terrible.

Like, I know I have to take time for myself, but I feel like I'm always doing too much of that and that I should do more all the time.

[ Indistinct ] -Yeah.

It's great, of course, but if you let the stuff get too close to you, then that could be trouble, I guess.

Well, if you get emotionally too involved, you know, you can't save the world by yourself.

I don't think you can.

♪ -There's no way that this is going to happen, getting through climate change.

People are just going to keep ignoring it.

We'll just die.

♪ I should have brought thicker socks.

-Miriama, I'm with the docker crew now getting a ride out.

I was wondering if I could put you on speaker?

-So we are trying to get some big companies, big emitters to be filmed with you and maybe some other students, probably was thinking four to six students, so that you guys can put your concerns to the companies directly.

-Wow, that would be powerful.

-Have you got anyone that you would love to talk to?

-CEO Fonterra?

-Yeah.

-Give her... We have a few things to say to her.

-Cool.

Okay, guys, well look, I'll touch base with you in the next day or so and just make sure everything is good for Thursday, but otherwise, I'll see you then.

-[ Indistinct ] -Thanks, Luke.

Thanks, Sophie.

-Bye.

-Bye.

-Have a good day.

-It's kind of huge stakes.

The actions of the people we'll be talking to on Tuesday will basically determine my quality of life, if there is a life, like, 30 years, 50 years down the track.

-[ Indistinct ] ♪ -We've got two big baddies.

We've got coal and fossil fuels that we use in our manufacturing facilities, and we've got the cows' burps and the release of methane and nitrous oxide on the farms.

-Your practices are contributing massively to climate change.

-With our processing facilities, we've set the target to reduce our emissions by 30 percent by 2030.

-We don't have time to wait for that technology when we actually do know exactly what we need to do.

-We would like to go faster if we could.

It's as simple as that.

-My name is Sophie.

-Sophie.

-Yeah.

-Luke.

-Luke.

-Nice to meet you, Lucy.

-Hi, Lucy.

-Gemma.

-Hi, Gemma.

So if New Zealand just came in and said you've got to reduce cow numbers by 30 percent, it stops innovation.

-It is evidence-backed that we need to be cutting down the herd, that the methane emissions by your cows are literally, and I mean this with complete sincerity, killing people daily.

I try to see from your perspective how you do your job, but to me, I can't...

I would not be able to have that on my conscious the lives of millions of people.

-I don't see it quite as simple as that.

Yeah, because... -I guess that's the difference.

I do see it as quite black and white.

-...because if we look at everything that's creating greenhouse gases and stopped it tomorrow, we wouldn't have the life we live.

-So the deputy prime minister of Australia recently said something about climate change in the Pacific.

What he said was that the Pacific Islands will survive climate change because we pick their fruit.

Wow is my first response.

My second response was this poem.

The Pacific Islands will not survive because we pick your fruit.

You're no savior when the water you walk on is so shallow, where you descend from a line of colonizers.

Does the apple fall far from the tree?

You have nothing to do with the way our existence resists the grips of genocide.

We will survive because our descendants will eat the fruits of our labor, and it will be sweet.

And our rejoicing voices will echo through the sea, and we won't even remember your name.

[ Cellphone whooshing ] One of the people from SS4C had said in the group chat that climate change was not Pacific genocide.

[ Cellphone whooshing ] I think more than I was angry, I was tired.

Previous to SS4C, I kind of made a promise to myself that I wouldn't work with [speaking Samoan] whitewashed groups.

I was fully prepared on that night to pull 4TK from working with SS4C.

[ Cellphone whooshing ] -Guys, this is Luke.

This is [indistinct].

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Would you agree it kind of became about a lot more than just the definition in the dictionary?

-Even the act of someone who's not of Pasifika descent trying to define what climate change means for our people... -Yeah.

-...that, in itself, is like a whole thing.

-He might have been saying those things, but there was definitely rude things coming from both sides.

And I felt that as someone who's neutral about that there was definitely rude things being said on both sides and that maybe he should have been kicked out of the group chat.

-I acknowledge what you said, and I understand how you can see it that way, but I think when we're talking about literal lives and kind of the decimation of whole cultures, you can't pretend like there's neutral ground on that.

-Yeah.

-You can't pretend that he doesn't have white privilege that overrides what he'll say.

Just because he says something doesn't mean that it makes it neutral on both sides, and trying to be neutral in that kind of conversation is actually standing on the... -Of the oppressor.

-...side of someone who's the oppressor.

-When debating or having a conversation turns over that line of being respectful, which it did, something needs to happen then.

-And I think you ought to be real honest and up-front with that because if you want us to work with you, I don't feel comfortable bringing in more people if they have to sit and listen to this kind of stuff that he was saying... -Yeah, exactly.

-...and kind of downplay the kind of struggles that we have to go through with climate change.

And I get that he was here since February, but also we kind of went over the whole reason why we're here is because you don't have as many brown people in February.

So I could've been here in February.

So what does that mean?

I took it real seriously when I say that I want our brown people to feel comfortable and protected and not feel like tokens and not feel like they're only there to be damage control for what happened with SS4C.

So my initial reaction was that, damn, we're still dealing with this even after the apology, even after the sessions we had at Aotearoa College.

There are still white people in SS4C who think things like this, and it was unacceptable.

-I have decided that I do want to do politics even though it would be boring as hell and really frustrating, but I want to learn how to read a bill.

-Because we were looking at other bills like the renewable energy bill and the zero-carbon bill, so that's why Helena sparked her interest.

-Yeah, I want to do it.

-♪ Da-da-da, da ♪ -Eat some toast.

Yeah, so the targets, education and collaboration, making sustainability affordable, banning commercial pollution and creating adaptation plans.

Yeah.

♪ Maybe it has two doors.

♪ -Look, an ice age is when carbon dioxide has been 4,000 ppm, 10 times more than what it is today.

We are in a cold period in the Earth's history.

There's no mistake about it.

There's no connection between carbon dioxide and temperature.

-When I was saying my zero-carbon bill submission, I was very angry at I guess just the system.

Take action by contributing and collaborating with the people of Aotearoa.

Every teen and every adult should know the consequences that we face.

There is no point in us learning things for our future when the future we face is uncertain.

-Thank you for taking your time to come in today and speak with us.

Your submission has been heard.

-The submission is the way that they reach out to citizens, and so that made me angry that, that was... That is the way that ordinary people have a say in what our leaders do, and I don't think that's a very good way.

♪ -Striking the sun and that.

-I hope so.

-It will.

It will be.

-If we work on it.

-Yeah.

-Cool.

Okay.

That sounds good.

Anyone else making personal submissions on the zero-carbon bill?

-I did.

-You did.

-Yeah.

-How did that go?

Anyone want to... anything to report?

-I want to ask if they always have such terrible representation there.

Is that just general?

-You mean in terms of numbers, or do you mean in terms of terrible people?

-Like, it was... Maybe it was just because it was Hamilton and not Wellington, but when I was there, it was very mostly old white males which I don't think is what New Zealand population is.

-Welcome to Parliament.

-Is that what it's always like?

Why do they have meetings during the day?

Who's expected to come to that?

-Can't have people of your age group.

-How are working people meant to come?

-We're not meant to come.

That's the point.

It's an exclusive system designed to keep people out.

-But keep participating.

-Okay.

-Don't despair.

-And it's also...

It's not going to get any better if people like me keep saying that I'm so sick of terrible representation then don't go and do it themselves.

-It's the only thing that does, and it will in the end.

-Mm-hmm.

♪ ♪ -I do miss Samoa a lot.

Every time I go to Samoa, I see the sea slowly moving into where the people are living, where the people's houses are.

I never thought Fili would be interested in this area.

-You said you hear us, but you don't understand the urgency... -And I have come to accept that it's a must that we embrace what she's doing because we're also learning from it.

♪ [ Birds chirping ] -I think the Hui is just a beautiful example of the way the village in South Auckland works.

Like, we put a call out, and a lot of people responded wanting to help.

-Hello, everyone.

This is our first workshop as 4TK, so thank you for being here.

So put your hands up if this is the first time you've had these kind of conversations about climate change.

Yeah.

[ Speaking in Samoan ] -Round of applause!

[ Cheers and applause ] -It's very rare that Pacific Islanders, that youth, that South Aucklanders can get into a room, and we can be honest about these kind of things.

No other space is going to hold this kind of space for us like we can hold it for ourselves.

-[ Indistinct ] -This work is a lot of work.

Not only do you have to learn.

You have to unlearn everything that you've been taught from a young age from the systems that are here in New Zealand, not only here but, like, around the world, colonial powers and things like that.

[ Cheering ] We realized that something else that's so important about our movement is that we need to kind of facilitate spaces for people to become proud of their culture as well as partake in it because that's the step that I feel like maybe we might have missed.

One of the boys in 4TK, Sebastian, was talking about how all of our parents who are from the islands, they want to be buried in the islands, and I think he said something like, "I don't want to have to bury my mum in water."

And I feel the exact same way.

For Samoa, it's the way we treat those who have passed is really, really important.

Like, they're buried outside our houses.

That's how close we feel to them.

Do I even want to bring a child into this world?

It's something that I want, and I know it's something that my parents want, but it's just the question of, what kind of life would that child have to live?

Just thinking about the fact that they may not be able to go back to the islands.

South Auckland may not be here.

Everything that I've been blessed enough to have I may not be able to give to that same child.

-Everything needs to change, and it has to start today.

So, everyone out there, it is now time for civil disobedience.

It is time to rebel.

-We're organizing another school strike on September the 27th.

Yeah, if we can all show the politicians that we're not going to let them stand by and just talk the talk when there are issues at stake which are concerning our future and that put our right to a livable future at risk, we will not stand by and let that happen.

So we've got the whole thing about the 27th is that it's a general strike, so we have a bunch of unions standing in with us as well and teachers and parents and workers.

Not just students are standing behind the [speaking in Samoan] the young people.

♪ -[ Indistinct ] To make it more disruptive, we're marching to the 2-meter sea level rise line, the line through the city where sea level rise will be in the next century if we don't change now.

The line goes straight over the entries and exits of the port, so that means on the day, if we keep a whole long, solid line, there's no way trucks filled with containers can get in and out.

-I think we've kind of took a long time to build up the trust of schools and [indistinct] -Yeah.

-And I think even though it would be a good story, it's potentially got really serious consequences.

-Like, there will be people just see a school strike and, like, breaking the law.

-Yeah.

-I would argue there's more things to go wrong if we do nothing, and if the story gets no media... -Yeah.

-There's always a risk.

-How many of you would be willing to risk arrest?

Put your hand up.

Okay.

-Very happily.

-I mean, what even happens if you're at risk?

You've got to let go.

[ Laughter ] -Okay, Ellie.

Alright.

-I mean, it's a no-brainer.

I think if a 17-year-old was arrested or was in a position where they could be arrested, that the amount of media that creates puts -- does what we're trying to achieve.

-But I think ultimately you just have to think, like, what's the consequence if we don't amp it up?

-I think we've got to look back at it, and the ultimate goal is huge, ambitious, cross-partisan action on climate change or a revolution.

Those are the only options at survival.

♪ -This will involve blocking off two of the three port entrances, so there may be a bit of conflict on those entrances.

-That conversation came up, and there was kind of, like, an attitude of, "Oh, well," like, "I'm good with the police," like, "Oh, well," like, "I'm okay with being arrested."

Like, and it's like, "Cool, good for you.

That's good for you, but what about the rest of us who will get harsher repercussions just for being brown?"

-I think we can... We should be able to get, like, this big media story which is really good for our coverage.

-What if they have been arrested before?

-Like, boys from gangs were asking if they could come to the strike, and their intentions were completely pure.

They didn't mean...

They didn't want to cause fights at the strike.

They're just coming because they want to protest for their future, and if they come, and the police manhandles them when they already have an offense against their name for something they did totally not related to the strike, I'm scared that something is going to happen there.

So if SS4C is going to do something that is going to bring that kind of reaction, they have to not think about themselves first.

They need to think about how it's going to affect those who are less privileged first.

♪ [ Indistinct conversation, car horn honking, cheering ] -Mum, would you mind if I got arrested?

You can be honest.

-I know you can handle it, so I don't mind.

You can handle it.

-Yeah.

♪ -Oh, no.

-Oh!

♪ -All over the city, all over the country, there's groups of kids just making sure that everywhere is hit with these posters.

Yeah, we're on the brink of mass starvation.

We lose 200 species a week.

-Wanna finish that wall?

-♪ We can burn together ♪ ♪ We can shine brighter ♪ ♪ As a supernova ♪ ♪ I just want to love you ♪ ♪ We have to serve better ♪ ♪ You can do better ♪ ♪ As a supernova ♪ ♪ I just want to love you ♪ -At the march, we could, like, all hold hands along Poland Street.

With the sea-level rise that we already have and with a medium storm in 10 years, the ocean is going to be in Poland Street.

That doesn't...what the...?

[ Sighs ] ♪ -And in the cracks of South Auckland's dawn, I see God whilst in the depths of the dirty south, my soul resides, driving past streets with Chucks tied on power lines.

-We remember the times.

♪ -We're serious about our vandalism.

Not vandalism, activism, you know?

Put it here.

-[ Indistinct ] -Southside will always be my home.

-We thank you for the memories.

-[Indistinct] 'cause this is our decree.

We made our own milk and honey in the land of [indistinct].

-Even when the lyrics to songs of pain are ones that everyone sings, on the cracks of dawn on Southside streets, I hear angels sing... -...to the sound of drum beats.

-Southside on the front line.

-Watch the dispersion retreat to a curse, to rehearse, our voices will never recede.

Colonizers will never impede.

[ Indistinct conversation ] -How are you all feeling, guys?

We're 5 days out.

[ Laughs ] [ Indistinct conversations ] ♪ -...where the police have blocked for us to go to, so cars can't go there.

-Oh, okay.

-One day left.

So I'm in English class, but I have ditched what the class is actually doing.

I'm in the backroom writing my speech for Friday because I really haven't done that, and it's Thursday.

Watching Greta's speech and writing my own has made me so angry with the world.

I shouldn't be here, and I agree with her sentences at the start, that this is wrong, and her continuing message of, "How dare you?"

I totally stand by that.

How can our leaders not be mature enough to take that step in the right direction?

It's positive!

Not very articulate when I'm mad, sorry.

♪ -Good morning.

It's the 27th of September today.

It's, like, 5 in the morning.

It doesn't feel like today is even really going to happen.

I guess it is, right?

-I'm catching the 5:15 train.

Don't want to miss it, so I'm just going to leave super early.

[ Alarm beeping ] -Shut up.

Oh, my God.

It's so fricking bright.

Let's stay in bed for another hour.

-I'm about to cry, and I'm not even out of bed yet.

Any pain or frustration I've ever had or tiredness is going to go away as soon as I see that crowd of brown people in their cultural gear.

My heart calms me down and tells me I'm ready.

This is the uniform we wore on Polyfest.

Last time I wore this, I was performing on a stage and doing a different kind of protest against Pasifika genocide.

It's only fitting that I wear this out here.

Sweet.

-As Greta says, you know, the house is on fire.

We need to call it what it is and declare a climate emergency, and I... -Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-Stop it.

-[ Laughs ] -I've got a girl on a hike on the city, here with my sisters, [indistinct] and Fili.

-Oh, man!

-It's kind of silly.

[ Laughter ] -♪ Baby, wait for me ♪ [ Music playing, all singing indistinctly ] -Please, please, like, on the bus, on the strike, we're here to fight for our islands, not to fight each other.

-Yeah!

[ Cheering ] -Your morning report, School Strike for Climate organizers are calling on everyone today, not just students, to join them on their third march.

-I know that it's going to definitely affect youth for much harder than it will any other generation but still, you'd think that they love their kids and their grandkids, so surely you'd get out there.

Surely you'd be terrified just as much as we are.

♪ -I'm hoping for 200.

I don't know if we'll get there.

♪ -I'm ready.

I can do it.

♪ -Look how many brown people!

[ Cheering ] -Everyone knows here that in Southside, we get called criminals, thugs, all these negative connotations put to us, but look at us doing these things like here today.

[ Indistinct chanting ] ♪ ♪ [ Cheering ] -I'm going to cry.

[ Indistinct ] [ Cheering ] ♪ ♪ -Let's go!

Let's go!

♪ -It's massive.

Aah!

[ Laughs ] ♪ This is huge!

Aah!

♪ -Okay, let's go, team!

Let's go!

Let's go!

[ Cheering ] -Go, go, go!

♪ [ Cheering ] ♪ -Whose future?

-Our future!

-Whose future?

-Our future!

-Whose future?

-Our future!

-Whose future?

-Our future!

-Whose future?

-Our future!

-Whose future?

-Our future!

♪ -Here, you have one each.

-Yeah.

-Can you hear us, Council?

We're here in support of climate action that you can do.

Maybe we just close the intersection for a bit.

Yeah, let's just close the intersection.

Can you stand?

So, only 7 months ago did the School Strike for Climate movement make its way to Aotearoa.

-We are not!

-Downing!

-We are!

-Fighting!

-But what a special day today is because today we stand together, young and old, workers and students, parents and grandparents, different backgrounds and cultures to say that we will not stand and watch our collective home be destroyed.

[ Cheers and applause ] ♪ -When the Earth we love is under attack, what do we do?

-Stand up, fight back!

-What do we do?

-Stand up, fight back!

-We demand that our elected leaders pass an ambitious zero-carbon bill with cross-party consensus that gets us to zero carbon by 2040.

We demand that our leaders end fossil fuel exploration and extraction in Aotearoa.

We demand that they invest in a regenerative and renewable economy right now.

-So to you, our leaders, we say that change is coming whether you like it or not.

-Draw the line!

Draw the line!

Draw the line!

-We will use our people power and make the change needed no matter how long it might take.

There is too much at stake!

-We are not!

-Drowning!

-We are!

-Fighting!

-We are not!

-Drowning!

-Because of the inaction of our societies, I have worried whether it's even safe to bring a family that I would love to have into this world.

Homes, families and futures are being destroyed as we speak due to climate change, so how can I hope for a future for my children?

-We are!

-Fighting!

-We are not!

-Drowning!

-We are!

-Fighting!

-We are not!

-Drowning!

-We are!

-Fighting!

-We are not!

-Drowning!

-We are!

-Fighting!

-We are not!

-Drowning!

[ Cheers and applause ] -Hopelessness is useless because in times of oppression, if you do not stand, you are siding with the oppressor.

[ Cheers and applause ] So do not feel sad, brothers and sisters, feel angry!

[ Cheers and applause ] Today we draw the line!

[ Cheers and applause ] -Because you know what?

It's our islands that are sinking.

[ Cheering ] Let the Southside rise and not the sea levels.

[ Cheering ] This is about all of us.

This is our fight, and we are here fighting right now, so let this be for the culture, show everyone.

[ Cheers and applause ] ♪ [ Shouting in Samoan ] [ Cheers and applause ] -[ Shouting in Samoan ] ♪ ♪ -So how do people keep talking about our genocide like it's nothing, like we're nothing?

It breaks my heart.

♪ Breaks my heart.

♪ -I'm proud of you.

-Yay!

I'm proud of you, too.

I was telling them that I'm so glad with the amount of people that came it proved you wrong, that there were so many more people, and it was so much better.

-It was amazing.

I don't know.

I can't, like, say this without, like... -When I say "student," you say "power."

-Power!

-Student!

-Power!

-Student!

-Power!

-We did it!

[ Cheers and applause ] We did it!

-Yes!

-I linked it.

-She did it!

[ Cheers and applause ] -♪ We can burn together ♪ ♪ We can shine brighter ♪ -Oh, my God!

-♪ As a supernova ♪ ♪ I just want to love you ♪ [ Men chanting ] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪