Brisbane

Sama Youhana

“The fear never really leaves you.”

Sama stands leaning against a floor-to-ceiling glass window, holding her closed black laptop in front of her chest and looking straight at the viewer with a serious, strong expression. Water droplets from a recent or ongoing rainfall are visible on the outside of the glass window.

Portraits by Rebecca Parker

Sama Youhana is a 21-year-old student living in West End in Brisbane, right by the Brisbane River.

Born in Auckland to Iraqi-Chaldean parents, she moved to Australia when she was nine and is now studying law and arts at the University of Queensland.

In 2022, during her final year of high school, floodwaters slowly inundated her family’s home during the Brisbane floods. Since then, repeated experiences of flooding, storms, extreme heat and Cyclone Alfred have left her questioning whether Brisbane remains a viable place to build her future.

Sama is speaking out about the growing impacts of climate change on young people and the right to feel safe in your own home.

Living beside the river

My family lives directly beside the Brisbane River.

When I first moved to Brisbane, the climate felt relatively normal. But over the last few years, extreme weather has become more frequent and intense, and I've experienced that firsthand.

In 2022, during my final year of high school, we lived through the Brisbane floods.

Sama sits on a bench outside of the garage of her family home. She is partially turned away from the viewer, looking at the Brisbane River which lies a few feet away, just past a brick-paved path and a road. Trees line the river bank. It is a wet and rainy day.

There are no properties between us and the river. We watched the water slowly rise over several days, but no one expected it would become as bad as it did.

It was the middle of the night when the water started coming up through the garage.

Suddenly everyone was rushing to move what they could and work out what to do next.

Sama, wearing a light blue sweater and jeans, stands inside her family home's garage, pointing to the place on the grey cinderblock wall where floodwaters reached, at a height that appears to be about three feet. Two neatly coiled green garden houses hang on the wall where she is pointing. Other gardening tools are hanging on the wall behind her.

A night I’ll never forget

That night remains one of the most frightening experiences of my life.

For the rest of the night, I set an alarm every 30 minutes so I could wake up and check the water levels.

I was scared for my family, especially my younger brother. We didn't know how high the water would rise or where we would go if the water kept rising.

We don’t have family here, and I kept thinking about losing everything we had.

All I could think about was my family's safety.

When the floodwaters finally receded, we were left without power for a week. Our garage was filled with dirty, murky water and mould. We had to throw out so many things: clothes, furniture, even our washing machine and dining table.

But we had nowhere else to go, so we stayed.

Aerial view of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of homes, partially submerged in murky, brown water. The floodwaters seem to stretch for miles. Bright green trees are visible above the floodwaters.

Homes inundated by floodwaters on Mar. 1, 2022, in Brisbane. (Bradley Kanaris / Getty Images)

The floods changed how I experience every extreme weather event that comes after it.

Whenever severe weather approaches, the fear comes back.

In 2025, when Cyclone Alfred hit Brisbane, l barely slept. I lay in bed listening to wind as it rattled my bedroom window.

“The wind was so intense and haunting.”

Torrential rain is coming down on an urban road, adding to the floodwaters that are already rising halfway up the road sign posts and traffic lights. The traffic lights are all red.

Flash flooding and severe winds in Brisbane from Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred. (Albert Perez / Getty Images)

At the same time, Brisbane just keeps getting hotter. This kind of intense heat makes it hard to focus on study and work, and I actively try to avoid being outside.

The weather, overall, feels more unpredictable. It’ll shift quickly from extreme heat to heavy rain and storms, with huge hail stones falling, larger than we ever used to see.

Experiencing the floods made me very anxious about potentially facing other future extreme events.

“When you experience something like that, it completely changes how you prepare and process every extreme weather event that comes after that.”

Sama sits in a high-backed chair at a small circular desk, looking down at a laptop on the desk as she types. There are four large stickers neatly placed stuck on the top of the laptop, decorating it. Sama sits with her back to the floor-to-ceiling glass window that overlooks a green, out-of-focus landscape.

Finding purpose through action

Experiencing the floods pushed me to take action.

I became involved with the Australian Youth Climate Coalition as a way to process what I’d been through, learn more, connect with others, and do something that felt meaningful.

Being part of a youth-led movement has given me a sense of community and purpose.

“Young people are so deeply invested in acting on the climate crisis because it threatens our whole future.”

Why I joined the Hard Truths human rights case

I'm part of this case because I want decision-makers to understand that climate change is already impacting people's lives, safety and human rights.

Living through the floods during such an important time in my life made everything feel unstable and uncertain. It has shaped how I experience every extreme weather event that comes after it.

I have thought about whether Brisbane will remain somewhere I can safely live long term.

“I want to feel secure and safe where I live, which I don’t always feel here.”

Sama stands in a grassy area on the banks of the Brisbane River, holding a large black, opened umbrella to shelter herself from the rain. She is directly facing the viewer with a serious expression. The Brisbane River is brownish color and is almost reaching the grassy area. The day is overcast. Buildings are visible on the opposite bank of the river, behind Sama.

I want decision-makers to understand that climate change is already at our doorsteps, making its way into our lives, and that young people will have to live with the consequences of the decisions being made now.

I hope this case helps drive stronger action on climate change and shows that people’s rights and safety need to be taken seriously now, not in the future.

“The government’s policies are already impacting us and defining the already destabilising future we are growing into.”

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