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This placard was made by secondary school student Lucy Owen for the School Strike for Climate Action global campaign held in New Zealand on Friday 15 March 2019. It is one of several selected by strike organisers across the country in a co-collecting project with Te Papa.
United by their concern for the future of the planet, tens of thousands of young students marched in towns and cities throughout the country. They declared ‘We are striking from school to tell our politicians to take our futures seriously and treat climate change for what it is - a crisis … In New Zealand, education is viewed as immensely important, and a key way to make a difference in the world. But simply going to school isn’t doing anything about climate change … So, as our contribution to the changes we want to see, we are striking from school. We are temporarily sacrificing our educations in order to save our futures' (School Strike 4 Climate NZ, see Three Northland schoolgirls organise strike to protest climate change - NZ Herald).
The protest caused controversy in some quarters, with concerned people questioning whether striking was a worthwhile use of learning time. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern released a statement acknowledging the strike: ‘I have said that climate change is my generation's nuclear free moment - for them it's literally their future’ (NewsHub, 15 March 2019).
17 year old Lucy Owen made and carried this placard for the strike in Wellington. She has repurposed the popular Billy Joel song: 'We didn't start the fire / It was always burning since the world's been turning...' (1989).
The School Strike 4 Climate Action movement began in Sweden in August 2018 when 15-year-old Greta Thunberg missed school to protest outside the Swedish Parliament holding a sign that read ‘Skolstrejk för klimatet’ (school strike for the climate). Since then it has grown into a worldwide movement, where youth are at the forefront of demanding governments protect the future of the environment that they will inherit.