Aunty McRose Elu has been watching her ancestral lands slowly disappear beneath her feet for decades.
"There was a great big thunderstorm and it was really very worrying when I saw the water —the tide was high and the water came on the footpath up to the knee," she said.
"The government spent millions and millions of dollars on the sea walls … but they're not effective at all."
The island of Saibai is often flooded with seawater, affecting the homes and livelihoods of its 291 residents, and destroying sacred sites and graveyards.
The Saibai elder is extremely concerned rising sea levels and increasingly severe weather events could mean her homeland is uninhabitable within 30 years, leaving her people as the country's first "climate refugees".
"There could be more done to save these islands," she said.
"These are our cultural lands, this is where we belong."
Elders of other island communities in the Torres Strait share the concerns of Aunty McRose and this week will show a federal court the extent of climate change harm.
Two Torres Strait Islanders are in the midst of a landmark legal case against the Commonwealth in an attempt to ensure the survival of their homelands.
They argue the government has a legal obligation to prevent the loss of their communities to climate change, and they are seeking orders for the cutting of greenhouse gas emissions, among other measures.
In a significant step, this week the Guda Maluyligal people of Boigu and Saibai islands will welcome members of the Federal Court onto their lands for on-country hearings, to be held in the community halls.
Aunty McRose said it was an emotional milestone for the communities.
"This is really good that they are coming up to see it themselves and walk on the land and see and feel how it is and how it is affected by climate change," she said.
"To show them what it used to be and what is no longer there.
"[The community] are hoping and praying that the outcome will be something fruitful for our people whatever the outcome of it [the case]."
Changing before our eyes
Traditional owners of Zenadth Kes, also known as the Torres Strait, say they have been witnessing the destruction of their lands and culture by the elements for decades.
On the low-lying islands of Boigu and Saibai, the northernmost islands of Australia, rising sea levels due to global warming have been causing invasive erosion and flooding.
Increased salt in the soil has killed vegetation and prevented the farming of crops in many areas.
Aunty McRose Elu was born on Saibai Island but grew up on the Australian mainland. She travels home regularly to connect with her culture and visit relatives.
She recalls a time when the islands were covered in vegetation and abundant food sources. However, she said the community now relied on cargo ships to stock the local supermarket.
"We have to go a long way for seafood and we don't plant anymore," she said.
"The people depend on the cargo ships to bring the goods, fruit and vegetables, meat and so forth."
The ongoing destruction and damage caused by rising sea levels and increasing storm activity could see the Guda Maluyligal communities and Zenadth Kes people forced from their homes, and the loss of more than 65,000 years of culture and tradition.
"We are hoping and praying that these islands won't sink, but when you see it with your own eyes, [climate change] is the biggest threat, biggest danger ever to those islands," Aunty McRose said.
"[Our people] are not really ready or prepared to even accept the fact that there might be a question of relocation.
"Our loved ones are lying in their resting places on these islands … and we're going to have to leave their bones behind. We can't take them with us."
An extraordinary case
Uncle Paul Kabai and Uncle Pabai Pabai said they had embarked on the unprecedented Australian legal action to ensure the survival of their land and traditions for future generations.
They are represented by the legal firm Phi Finney McDonald and supported by the public interest advocacy group the Grata Fund and the Dutch NGO Urgenda.
Grata Fund executive director Isabelle Reinecke said the case was globally significant.
"It follows big litigation successes all over the world, most notably in the Netherlands," she said.
"[The success of that case] led to the rapid closure of coal-fired power stations and billions of dollars of investments in renewable energy.
"The case really has the prospect of reshaping how the [Australian] government is approaching climate harm in the Torres Strait."
Aunty McRose said the applicants and their legal team had the full support of the community.
"People of Boigu and Saibai have been embracing and supporting in any way possible to give them cultural knowledge and cultural information, the backgrounds of our islands, all of our traditional spirituality, everything to build up a case."
This is not the first climate action in the Torres Strait. Earlier this year the UN Human Rights Committee found Australia violated Torres Strait Islanders' rights by failing to protect them from climate change after a complaint was filed in 2019 by eight Torres Strait Islanders.
The legacy of Mabo
On Saturday, First Nations peoples commemorated 31 years since the landmark Mabo decision that saw the overturning of Terra Nullius.
During the historic land rights case, Justice Martin Moynihan and counsel travelled to Mer Island in the Torres Strait to conduct Supreme Court sittings and hear from witnesses.
Ms Reinecke said the timing of the on-country hearings was an "incredible" coincidence and that Uncle Paul and Uncle Pabai's case could have the "transformative potential that Mabo's case did in the 90s".
"This really is an opportunity to again take a leading role for the country in forcing the government to do better and be better."
For Aunty McRose, the legacy of Mabo inspires her to continue advocating for her people.
"I'm so adamant … [we must] fight to save our islands in whichever way we can," she said.
"At the end of the day, it's the lives of our people that are at risk. It's not just our islands but islands and countries everywhere around the world."
A decision is anticipated in 2024.
