“It was simple what I said, but just the act of making my voice heard and standing strong and my own opinions and truth was huge for me when I was young,” she recalled. “It made me realize there was something I could do to be a part of the solution, to be able to protect our people and our homelands from these extractive industries.”

She said she still gets nervous when she speaks in front of groups about the environment, but she has learned to take ownership of her voice and recognizes that she has a right to share her opinions.

“At the beginning, especially when I was younger, it was really hard because often I found I was either the only brown person in a space, or the youngest, or the only Native in the room,” she said. “When you’re in that predicament, a lot of times you feel unheard, and you also find that you’re always fighting to make space for yourself.”

Thunberg said there’s no one moment that sparked her activism.

“It was a slow process,” she said. “I started to educate myself about the climate and ecological crisis, and I just started to understand the urgency.”