Fiona, Aaron, and Pepper’s Dream House Up in Smoke
Friday November 8, 2019, Fiona, her partner Aaron, and their two year old daughter Pepper, had to quickly flee their home New South Wales, Australia, that they had built with their own hands.
“We had recently finished building our daughter’s first bedroom. The light switch was really low so the little one could reach it. It was purple and she loved it.”
But the climate-intensified bushfire didn’t care about Pepper’s new purple room with a light switch made just for her.
Fiona — or Fi — tells us their story in her own words:
About midday, as the wind whipped up, we saw black plumes of smoke funnel directly over our heads and cover the sun. Burnt leaves started falling in our yard. Our family, including my partner and 2 year old child knew it was time to leave. …
There were no helicopters, water bombers, or fire trucks in sight.
The speed and ferocity at which the fire came took everyone by surprise. …
There, at ‘reception bend’ we tried to get in touch with Aaron’s parents to tell them they needed to get out. We couldn’t reach them. …
My daughter and I stayed with a friend. Aaron went back to the fire to find his parents.
Many harrowing hours ensued as the emergency fires raged all around the town and overtook outlying communities. …
It was after midnight when Aaron called. Disorientated, in a dark alien moonscape, he climbed the steep and flaming hill past the burning piles of rubble that were our home, gardens, car, studio, shed and tanks.
Over a fuzzy and broken phone line I heard him simply say “It’s all gone.”
“It’s all gone.”
Fire and Protest
Just two days later Fi and Aaron and Pepper were protesting climate inaction in front of parliament with a bucket of ash from their burned down dream home.
The Deputy Prime Minister said that anyone linking climate and the bushfires were the “ravings of pure, enlightened and woke capital city greenies.” What victims needed were “thoughts and prayers.”
A day after the protest, three days after the fire took their home, Fi was interviewed and was asked about politicians trying to silence people talking about climate impacts and the need for action.
“Now the evidence that we’re in a climate catastrophe is right in front of our face.”
She didn’t mince words about the attacks from politicians: “They’re slandering, and it’s nonsensical.”
“I am on the front lines of the climate crisis. I’m a bushfire survivor. It’s important for the country and politicians particularly to hear from people like me to really understand what it’s like, because there’s going to be so many more people in our situation.”
Fire, Art, & Activism: No More Trying To Put Out Climate Fires With a Garden Hose
Out of the ashes of denial and gaslighting and slander, out of the ashes of her dream home, there arose a phoenix of climate action in the form of art.
Fiona has created several exhibits, including one titled “Unpreparable.” The images and words below tell the story.
Fighting climate change with a garden hose is a good metaphor for where things stand and the need for speed and scale in response to the “speed and ferocity” of all the different types of climate fires out there. In this sense, time to overcome fire with fire, the fire of our collective energy.
Fiona explained another of her exhibits, called CARBON TAX, with these words:
“I felt silenced by politicians. I had to call out these comments. There is a clear link between the bushfires and a heating planet and I’ve used the evidence of the climate crisis, the scorched remnants of my home, to communicate this.”
Fiona’s art and activism have already made a difference. As one of her bios informs us:
With over two decades of involvement in grassroots organisations, her most significant achievement came in 2021 when she was a part of a landmark court victory with Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action which compelled the NSW [New South Wales] Environment Protection Authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, establishing a groundbreaking precedent in Australia.
Alone with her garden hose Fi has no chance. But joining with others, in this case the Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action, Fiona was part of a major victory.
Fiona knows first hand how empowering taking action can be:
“It’s so cathartic to be able to communicate what I’m thinking … For actually having done something to try and change things is the most empowering and relieving thing. I don’t think there’s anything better …”
When faced with tragedy, Fiona didn’t retreat. She moved forward. She didn’t quit. She got busy. And climate action released and rechanneled energy devoted to loss into overcoming what took her home to help save the homes of others.
We’re All Artist-Athletes
The world is still trying to put out all the various climate flames with a garden hose.
Ain’t gonna happen.
The only way we’re going to overcome climate change is by having The Climate Movement become the greatest and most long-lasting social change movement in the history of the world, which is our destiny. And the only way for us to become our destiny is for each of us to play our part as the Artist-Athletes we have the potential to be.
Artist-Athletes?
Athletes because my primary metaphor for us is the Olympic Games. We are all Athletes on our particular Olympian Fields of Action based on the gifts, knowledge, and passions we have. And just like the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games, we all come together on two fields of action: (1) growing and improving The Climate Movement, and; (2) engaging policymakers.
But we are also Artists.
Now much of what we do may not appear to be beautiful or even creative on the surface. But living out our Movement Values of love, justice, beauty, freedom, creativity, wisdom, pragmatism, non-violence, sustainability, and success is always beautiful and creative. That’s why we are all Artists.
Not all art is aesthetically pleasing on the surface, such as the charred remains of Fiona Lee’s hand-built home made with love. But resurrecting that love through her art to overcome the destructive fires of climate consequences is beautiful. Fiona’s creativity and activism are beautiful.
And so can ours be. No one can create the beauty and artistry you can through your climate activism. Only you can do that. As I’ve often said, our job together is to make the impossible possible and the possible actual and the actual beautiful and our just future come faster. We need you to play your unique role to make it happen.
So join us, and let’s create beauty together as Artist-Athletes on our Fields of Action!
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Very good article - well done!
My favorite part (and I quote):
"The Deputy Prime Minister said that anyone linking climate and the bushfires were the “ravings of pure, enlightened and woke capital city greenies.” What victims needed were “thoughts and prayers.” "