Oli Moraes
Oli was born on the small island of Florianópolis (Meiembipe or “mountain along the channel”) in the south-east of Brazil on the lands of the Carijós Tupi peoples to a Brazilian father and Australian mother. After moving back to Australia, Oli grew up on Wurundjeri Country on the outer eastern fringes of Melbourne while spending a lot of time with family camping in Gariwerd the Grampians on Djab Wurrung and Jardwajali Country.
Oli is passionate about climate justice and community-based solutions to global problems such as climate change and biodiversity loss and is both excited and humbled to be working with Djaara to lead holistic and transformative social and ecological solutions to the climate crisis.
Oli has degrees in Arts (International Studies), Science (Geology) and a Master of Environment (Climate Change) and has been working in NGOs and the community sector for over 7 years in climate change education, sustainability, and sustainable development. More recently Oli has been working as an academic research assistant at RMIT University on various research projects across sustainability, climate change, environmental justice, resilience and biodiversity conservation as well as teaching and tutoring in RMIT’s school of Global, Urban and Social Studies.
Outside of work Oli is passionate about addressing climate change in the South Pacific leading the charity Climates – a group of volunteers that provide remote support and free services to NGOs and communities in Fiji, Vanuatu, PNG, West Papua, Samoa, Kiribati and Tuvalu.
Oli is deeply committed to supporting and elevating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ perspectives, leadership and self-determination particularly in relation to climate change and the environment. Oli sees working with and on-behalf of Djaara as an honour and a privilege.