360: Watch how the People’s Parliament unfolded

This week, as politicians met once again to hash out a global climate deal in Paris, something incredible happened here in Australia.

We took back our Parliament and demanded that our leaders put people before polluters.

Over 300 people - Aboriginal elders, farmers, Pacific Islanders, doctors, people of faith - came together and formed our own People’s Parliament right inside the halls of power in Canberra.

These were people from the frontlines of climate change: traditional custodians of the land, people whose homes, culture and history face destruction from runaway global warming.

Together these unlikely activists formed the largest peaceful act of civil disobedience ever to take place inside the Australian Parliament.

Watch how the People’s Parliament unfolded:

The People’s Parliament was a beautiful act of peaceful resistance inside a place where for too long our leaders have put the interests of big polluters ahead of the people they are there to represent.

Stories from people like Aunty Mabel, a Bailai elder from the Gladstone Region, Koreti Tiumalu from Samoa and Ron Ipsen a third generation energy worker from the Latrobe Valley were beamed live into the office of every politician in the Parliament and were later covered in news bulletins and media across the country.

Senators, MPs and staffers came out from their offices to watch. Many were moved to tears by the powerful stories they heard from people young and old who stand to lose so much if Australia fails to take decisive action on climate change and if we fail to leave fossil fuels in the ground.

For Sue Cooke, a public health educator from Brisbane, the action was about sending a message to the politicians inside the Parliament that if they will not lead, the people will: “People here are fighting for their families, their cultures, their nations.”

Eventually, security dragged the People’s Parliament out of the People’s House. All 300 of us, one by one.

But we didn’t go without being heard - we continued our People's Parliament outside and then we came together to plan more action for the weeks and months to come. Because the People's Parliament was just the beginning.

As a movement, we are more united than ever. In 2016 we are ready to turn up the pressure on our politicians like never before.

Across the globe we, the people, are ready to take the lead. 

But to do it, we need you.