Sophie Trevitt
Ellen SANDELL (Melbourne) (09:54): Late last week the world lost a young woman who was truly one of a kind. Sophie Trevitt lost her short battle with brain cancer at the age of 32, and I know this loss is felt deeply by all those who knew her, because if you worked with Soph, she left a big impression on you. I first met Sophie through the Australian Youth Climate Coalition when she was just 16 years old. She was wise and talented, with a strength and moral fortitude beyond her years. Over the next 10 years or so we worked together in various capacities – at the AYCC as young climate activists, at UN climate conferences and later side by side on election campaigns and in the Greens. In more recent years Sophie became a staunch advocate for young people in detention and prison and for First Nations justice. This year she was awarded the Voltaire Human Rights Award, but of course, in true Sophie style, she only wanted to use the award to further her platform for her social justice work. When governments finally get around to raising the age of criminal responsibility, it will be in no small part due to Sophie’s tireless work alongside First Nations communities.
Soph packed a lot into her 32 years. Ultimately I will remember her as a passionate, sometimes wild, often accident-prone, incredibly loyal friend who spent literally her whole life giving back to others. Soph, I will remember all the times we spent dancing on sticky floors from Canberra to Cancun, the bad spoken word you dragged us to in the backstreets of Los Angeles and the nights you would stay late at the office, finishing the work the rest of us were too tired to do, fuelled only by carrots and hummus and a deep abiding sense of justice. Sophie set the standard for the rest of us. My love and condolences to the love of her life Tom, her friends and family and the many, many people who loved her.