An environmental educator at The People’s Blockade of the world’s largest coal port

By Andrew Snedden

I pulled up at the blockade camp just as the sun was setting, painting the sky orange – it felt fittingly dramatic. On the shores of Muloobinba/Newcastle, home to the world’s largest coal port, over eight thousand people gathered to disrupt the coal gateway responsible for roughly one percent¹ of global carbon emissions. It was more than a protest; it was a “protestival,” a powerful and unified community making their voices heard through non-violent direct action. 

The atmosphere, built on a foundation of protest, joy, music, community, and delicious food, was irresistible. The blockade was a microcosm of a better world we are striving for: a vibrant, inclusive community built on shared purpose and deep connection.

As activist and thought leader Tim Hollo writes in his piece on the blockade:² “alongside the ‘NO’ to the omnicidal coal industry and the governments entwined with it, Rising Tide offers a tremendous, reverberating ‘YES’ to the world we need.” That vision was made tangible: we were welcomed by local First Nations Elders, sang sea shanties on the banks of the channel, and danced together at live festival performances by The Herd and Lime Cordiale. These moments offered more than celebration, they were glimpses of the world being actively built in resistance. Weeks after the blockade, that clarity of purpose and renewed energy continues to resonate with me.

Why The Blockade?

This blockade was focused on disrupting (specifically) coal ship activity through the Port of Newcastle NSW, and raising the political cost of inaction on climate change. Rising Tide’s demands are clear:

To achieve this, the movement deployed Non-Violent Direct Action (NVDA). Over the course of the blockade, 159 people were arrested³ defending our climate. Arrest is not a failure; it is a strategic, powerful and brave act of civil disobedience. As the authors of This Is An Uprising⁴ note, sometimes disruption is the only way to shift the political needle.

Participation & Collective Effort

I spent the first few days doing whatever I could to help: volunteering for transport shifts to collect newcomers from the station, supporting camp logistics, and training to keep people safe while kayaking on the water. As we built towards the weekend, my role expanded to paddling in the Night Flotilla, swimming out to deploy the floating banner, and helping to strategise, plan, and carry out non-violent direct actions.

This experience reinforced a key lesson for any movement: success depends on diverse roles. For every person willing to participate in a direct action, there are hundreds more required to keep the movement running: the cooks, medics, the (incredible) media team, logistics coordinators, security, community care teams, and the welcome tent, to name just a few.

Unlike many protests I had experienced before that were shaped by anger or confrontation, this gathering was defined by a sense of care and collective joy, with its days and nights punctuated by film screenings, yoga sessions, deep ecology discussions, and quiet moments sharing chai in the Chai Tent.

Why Action Is Hard

For me, an environmental educator, this was a life-changing experience that has profoundly transformed how I view my role in the climate movement.

But this is not my story alone. This is a reflection on a shared experience, the essential role of advocacy and action in environmental education, and a call for every educator to embrace their own unique role as we advocate for our shared earth in the defining struggle of our time.

Participation in the blockade also forced me to continue to confront my own privilege⁵ and the subsequent responsibility I carry. I am privileged to be able to participate in frontline actions with a lower risk profile than many others. My privilege gives me more protection, and I feel like I have a moral obligation to use it.

As an educator, I wrestled with the concept of participating in an arrestable action. What would it mean for my Working With Children Check? What would future employers think? In a time of runaway climate change, tipping points, and mass extinction – action must escalate. Civil disobedience is a tactic with a long, proud history – from the Suffragettes to the US Civil Rights Movement. It is the language we use in movements when governments and industry fail to listen.

Environmental Educators and the Defence of Life

Environmental educators do incredible work. In classrooms, gardens, community halls, boardrooms, government offices, lecture theatres, social media feeds, and on computer screens, we focus on developing regenerative solutions and shifting mindsets. But our work is incomplete if we, as a collective, do not also participate in the defence of life.

A framework that has helped me process this is Joanna Macy’s Three Dimensions of the Great Turning⁶:

• Holding Actions in Defence of Life (1): Slowing the destruction (protests, blockades, lobbying, legal action)
• Transforming the Foundations of our Common Life (2): Building new systems (permaculture, community economies, alternative education)
• Shift in Perception and Values (3): Changing how we see the world (deep ecology, consciousness work—the heart of education)

We as educators excel at Dimensions 2 and 3, but in these urgent times, are there ways that we could also step into Dimension 1 (Holding Actions in Defence of Life) with all of our skills and passions? The People’s Blockade beautifully exemplified the overlap and interconnectedness of all three dimensions – holding actions through non-violent direct actions, transforming the foundations of common life through deliberative democracy in action, and shifting perceptions and values through strong storytelling.

My experience at the blockade confirmed my belief that we must urgently leverage the collective power of the environmental education community to influence policy and champion change.

It’s time for environmental educators to own our place in all three dimensions, to nurture life.

Choosing Your Role

Advocacy is simply the act of lending our expertise and passion to ensure that life on our planet can survive. There are many roles in advocating for climate action including feeding hungry volunteers, caring for the emotional wellbeing of our community, and even participating in NVDA.

There are specific roles for educators as well. Climate science and solutions must be communicated. Workshops need to be facilitated. Key messages must be distilled and shared.

As the year draws to a close, I invite you to pause, grab a pen and a journal, and reflect. What has this year asked of you? What skills, knowledge, or experience do you carry? What is your sphere of influence, and where might you have the greatest impact? What small, tangible step could you take next?

No single role is more important than another, what matters is showing up, together.

What skills or experience do you have to share with the movement?

For those feeling called to move from reflection into collective action, one way forward is to join the:

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As I close my laptop lid, I will venture into Redfern/Gadigal land to join some of my comrades. To sing sea shanties⁷. To celebrate our success at the blockade. To connect, in community, love, and joy. It’s the most driven, fulfilled, and happy I have felt in awhile. We are in the struggle of our lifetime, we are committed, and we are doing it together.

Rising Tide’s protestival was on the lands and waters of the Awabakal and Worimi Peoples.

References:

1. https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/environment/2024/11/23/climate-activists-unite-newcastle-coal-port-blockade ↩︎
2. https://in-between-days.ghost.io/becoming-the-rising-tide/ ↩︎
3. https://risingtide.nationbuilder.com/donate_legal ↩︎
4. https://thisisanuprising.org/ ↩︎
5. https://www.instagram.com/p/CpBz9AkvDMO/ ↩︎
6. https://workthatreconnects.org/dimensions-of-the-great-turning/ ↩︎
7. https://www.instagram.com/redfernshantyclub?igsh=NTdjNDhsaWZueGV5 ↩︎