While it might be too late to save the burrowing rodent with a prehensile tail tip, who coexisted with many shorebirds (noddies, boobies, and turns), it is not too late, to speak up for those that remain, like the green turtles and other bird species[3], whose nests are being washed away. It is not too late, urges Ghenoa Gela, the creator, writer, and performer, of “Gurr Era Op”, to write a letter to the Minister for the Environment asking for stronger “environmental laws to protect our lands, plants and animals from extinction.” Gela’s personal message in the foyer sets the tone. To my left, the Bramble Cay Melomys fixes me with an imploring look, as I am offered tea to help warm myself from the inside out. “My Ata (Dad’s Dad) used to live with them on our sacred island. It’s just devastating that they will no longer be there but also that their extinction is a telling sign of the seriousness of the rising waters here in Australia.”

And so “Gurr Era Op,” produced with Force Majeure in association with Ilbijerri Theatre Company’s Amy Sole, is Gela the Storyteller’s call to action. It is in every part of this work, dance, conversation, prompt, presented as part of Rising festival, because that is what storytellers do: they speak to us, openly, and encourage and remind us to play our part. “Gurr Era Op” in Meriam Mir translates as “the face of the sea,” and it is Gela’s ‘something.’ “You too can do something!”[4] Whether that is calling your local member or signing Our Islands Our Home[5] petitions for seawalls across the Torres Strait to ensure that homes, fresh water supplies, crops, burial grounds and sacred cultural sites are protected, you too can do something.[6] You, too, need to do something.