The clean energy transition has to be done with genuine consent and engagement from our First Nations peoples.
We don't mean proponents coming to us 12 months after they've picked the site and thought about what it will look like, but coming and talking with us about what a project might look like and how we can work on it together to ensure clean energy projects don’t impact our lands and waters, our sacred places.
Industry and government know they can't do this transition without our engagement and consent. If they do it with us, it'll be faster and fairer and done the right way.
We’ve had the experience of mining, where lots of our communities were left out of benefits, and haven't been able to realise generational wealth from projects on Country.
In the clean energy transition, we want to be the proponents and to develop those projects in partnership with proponents, working out what the benefits are, the equity share - working out how we might actually assist our communities for generations to come.
Whether it’s negotiating strong equity and benefit sharing agreements in mid-large scale projects, ensuring a seat at the table, or building community-led renewable projects, we believe this transition can't be done without also lifting up the conditions of all of our communities as we go, urban, regional and remote.
Around Australia, there's 4.5 million homes that have rooftop solar. They're not our homes for the most part.
Most of our mob can't get rooftop solar, and there’s a whole range of reasons why – policy barriers, who's going to own it, buy the asset, who's going to look after it, and so on.
This transition can actually change the conditions for all of us. We're not leaving anybody behind. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to do that kind of lift up for everyone.
Every First Nations group has a different way of coming at this, depending on the rights, interests and aspirations of that area.
PowerMakers is about building your toolkit – identifying the different tools and resources you need to help solve the problem you’re facing – whether that's clean reliable affordable energy, negotiating equity, building economic self-determination, or ensuring cultural heritage protections are complied with, and working out what other things are needed to build a toolkit based on achieving those things. 
There's something in PowerMakers for everyone, and there's a huge wealth of experience in this room, so we really want the next few days to be about bringing your stories, your case studies, your learnings – this worked, this didn't work, I really need some help with this…
It's really all of us bringing that - so that we can tackle this transition, together.
This is an excerpt from the opening session at PowerMakers 2026, delivered by Karrina Nolan from the First Nations Clean Energy Network.