'So bad even the introverts are here'

A week ago, a matter of hours before the terror attacks in Christchurch, an estimated 2000 Wellington students marched from Civic Square to Parliament demanding urgent action on climate change. Around 30 similar events happened elsewhere in NZ and over 100 countries worldwide were involved. #climatestrike

I caught a bus from Seatoun into central Wellington and students of all ages were packed in. I was sitting behind a mother and her young daughter who was carefully holding a handmade cardboard sign with these words:  “Stop climate change…it will kill us soon quite soon.”

Next to me, pre-schooler Archie is hugging his friend, helping him stay on the aisle seat they’re sharing. Archie’s mother, who also has two other pre-schoolers in tow, is briefing them about holding hands when they get into town. The man next to her starts up a debate on government spending and the challenges of taking such young kids to the march: “It will have been a good day if I get the four of them back safely,” she tells him.

My pen is starting to fail but enough to roughly capture the crowd waiting to start about 9.45am in Civic Square, central Wellington, with a few spots of rain. 

After running into an office supplies shop and getting a new pen, it was off down Willis St with the marchers; children and young people, with adults also expressing support.

 
Finally, the front lawn of Parliament is packed with people listening to speeches by youth organisers, students from Wellington schools, including Thorndon Primary School, politicians and Generation Zero. GretaThunberg, the Swedish student who kicked off this global protest, is referenced – including the fact she has this week been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. 

NZ Green party co-leader James Shaw also spoke to the crowd, a black eye from his recent attack clearly visible. Veteran Māori activist and former MP Donna Awatere Huata also spoke – she is the Māori Climate Commissioner.

Earlier in the week, Children’s Commissioner Judge Andrew Becroft   responded to those who saw the event as a convenient way for kids to bunk off school by saying that in his travels up and down New Zealand, this was the most important issue for the children and young people he spoke to, along with housing and poverty. This was the case whether he was in a decile one school in Flaxmere or a decile 12 school in Wellington, he said.

If this was 'truancy', it was certainly different from the stereotype: young people standing peacefully together for over an hour, listening to the speakers, posing questions, taking action on an issue viewed by many (as one placard read) as: "So bad even the introverts are here".