In 2013, Amelia Telford approached then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd while dressed up as Nemo to ask him "how he was going to protect my home, as a clown fish in the Great Barrier Reef". 
This year the 21-year-old has another message for the Prime Minister, though this time it's for Malcolm Turnbull, and she's talking about much more than the reef.
"People who have the power of decision making [must be] thinking about the impacts their decisions have on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities, specifically around approving new fossil fuel projects and how our communities are being devastated," she said.
"We need to get the energy revolution started."
A Bundjalung woman from Tweed Heads, Ms Telford was named the Australian Geographic Society's Young Conservationist of the Year on Wednesday.
Ms Telford is a member of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition and founder and director of Seed, a network of young Aboriginal people fighting for climate justice.
With little more than a month until the United Nations Paris climate conference, Ms Telford and her colleagues have all eyes on the government.
"It's really disappointing to see such a lack of ambition in what we are taking to Paris," she said.
"It's embarrassing for Australia, because we are one of the sunniest and windiest countries in the world and we have the science and technology available to actually be powered by renewable energy, but there are other countries doing so much better than we are."
Ms Telford has been involved with the Australian Youth Climate Coalition since she was in high school, a movement of more than 100,000 young people.
Her own brainchild, Seed, is a group she founded in   July last year, after realising indigenous young people lacked a platform through which to voice their views on climate change.
"There is an amazing history of Aboriginal resistance in this country...we have been the first scientists, the first people to defend our climate and to protect our land, so there is so much we can learn in the activist space from our people."
She said it was vital to create a dialogue for indigenous people because they are on the front line of the impacts of climate change.
"[Look at] sea level rises in the Torres Strait, drought and bushfires. There has been so much going on with generations of people standing up for our land, but there has not necessarily been a network to connect us across Australia," she said.
As Australia's political landscape shifts, Ms Telford said she encourages the government to be as ambitious as they can when it comes to climate policy, but that "we haven't seen anything yet."

 "The people of Australia want to see action. So if that means starting the transition ourselves by getting solar panels on the roofs of high schools and hospitals, showing the government what true leadership looks like and leaving them with no choice but to follow, I guess that's the path we will have to go down, and already have."