A Kulkalgal activist from the Torres Strait Islands has said the way the world often treats Indigenous people is an insult and that he is here at the Cop27 conference in Egypt “fighting for our home”.

Yessie Mosby, who in September was part of a group of claimants who made history during a landmark legal case that found the Australian government should compensate Torres Strait Islanders for their climate crisis failures, told the Guardian, “we were a race of people that we have hold on to a lot of ancient knowledge, which is being neglected and pushed aside:”.

In the Torres Strait, rising sea levels have led to saltwater seeping into the soil, causing coconut trees to become diseased and killing off the fruit.

“Whether it’s us in the saltwater, people of the Pacific Islands, or the people of the plains and the mountains, the swamps, who are facing climate change, and really want our voices to be heard. And we really need action.

“We the Torres Strait saltwater people we are so in tune with nature. We are a race that will see birds and they will tell us what the weather is going to be like tomorrow, we look at plants which tells us which particular fish are to be eaten or not to be eaten, we see plants which tells us that this particular fish in the water is poisonous.

“The world definitely has a lot to learn from us.”