It’s no overstatement to say that for someone so young, Ivy Sheng is already achieving remarkable things. Born in Nanjing, capital of China’s eastern Jiangsu province, Shing migrated to Australia with her family when she was five years old.
Now just 16 and living in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, when we speak Sheng is about to take off on a five country tour of Europe as an Australian UN Youth diplomat and hosts her own podcast focusing on intergenerational climate issues.
Over the past few years, Sheng has become involved in climate activism and shares a recent story from a young leaders retreat in Sydney earlier this year that opened her eyes to the power of open communication.
“Part of it was a community engagement session around Sydney’s beaches where we approached total strangers to talk about climate justice. I approached this man at a picnic and I was so nervous that I was kind of stuttering showing him these climate pledges and said – you can sign if you want.”
“It turned out he was the father of a NSW environment minister and was happy to talk to me and sign on. It just made me realise that people are more open minded than I might expect – that a lot of people care already and are happy to be engaged.”
Growing up in China, Sheng says she wasn’t exposed to climate or environmental politics from a young age, but always loved to draw. “I remember when I was little, I wanted to be an artist. So I guess even though I didn’t grow up in a very natural open space, I was pretty observant of things around me and liked to direct it into my paintings and sketches.”
One of Ivy’s artworks
It was also as a young girl in China that Sheng started playing the Cello – something she has continued to this day. “I remember my kindergarten friends and I started learning instruments together. I have a memory that we went to an office where they tested how flexible our fingers were and apparently I have very stretchy fingers for cello playing.”
When Sheng moved to Melbourne, she was immediately struck by both nature and the open green spaces she could access, which was a huge contrast to her previous life among skyscrapers in China. “Australia just had so many green spaces and natural wonders which was amazing for me to see after China.”
Her new school in Melbourne also took her on a camping trip to a place called Marshmead where she was able to take her passion for drawing to a whole new level. “I started doing more nature based artwork – paying a lot more attention to things like how the light hits things the way colors look in nature.”
Around the 2022 election, Sheng found herself drawn into activism from being exposed to people around her at school taking a stand on climate issues.
“At least for me and a lot of my friends, we felt that even what’s considered center left from Labor on climate policy is not as ambitious as we’d like to see for our future. The fact that climate breakdown is happening, it’s kind of, I don’t really have the words for it. It’s pretty crazy.”
Sheng created her own podcast series called Taught not Told focusing on inter-generational conversations with a current season spotlight on climate. In the current series she has already interviewed leaders from groups including the Climate Council, Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC) and Women’s Environmental Leadership Australia (WELA).
Meanwhile, Sheng has become active on the frontlines of the climate movement, recently attending a flash mob outside Liberal MP Sarah Whitty’s office when the coalition’s dumping of net zero climate targets was announced. “One of the biggest concerns for me is the undue influence on politics from corporate and private interests. I’ve joined with AYCC in campaigning against fracking in the Beetaloo Basin, which seems like such a step in the wrong direction.”
Sheng is among 16 young people who have been chosen from around Australia to head to Europe as youth delegates for the UN for an educational tour around the theme of ‘empires rising and falling’. “We’ll be visiting eight countries in Europe learning about history and culture, but I’m most excited about France.”
Sheng says that she is acutely aware of a conflation of global crises right now, including the climate crisis, civil wars, genocides and gender inequality. “Sometimes it feels like they’re all disconnected, but realizing that all of these issues are connected gives me hope of changing them.”
“So even if you’re working on one tiny corner of one single issue, you’re pulling on the thread that’s going to hopefully unravel the whole paradigm eventually. So everyone, everyone has a very important part to play.”
