Stella’s Secret Potion of Connection

“It all started at a clothing swap,” Stella Hertantyo begins. “I was probably 19 or 20, and I had been searching for something better than existing in a traditional consumerist society.”

When Stella arrived at the clothing swap with her clothes, she felt a refreshing sense of creativity in the air. “I’d brought clothes I’ve outgrown and saw someone pick them up with joy and excitement on their faces because it was something new to them.”

For Stella, an introverted observer who used fashion to express herself, this was a huge turning point.

“I’d found this new way of connecting to people, but also to the things in our lives that we use as expression. I was like, what else is possible?”

Here’s a question: How do storytellers, visual artists, and sustainable fashionistas in the environmental justice sphere reach us with their messages? How do they effectively convey the importance of climate awareness to people from many walks of life? After years of carefully listening to and observing people, multi-talented Stella Hertantyo uses all her knowledge to inspire connections in the sustainability space.

After all, “people” are the priority in Stella’s work. Understanding the people in her community and reaching them with her message is imperative. Stella wears many hats in the environmental justice sphere, but her favourite is helping others find that special connection in the climate space, just like that first clothing swap.

Conscious Fashion Collective is a membership-based community and a global destination for fashion change makers. “We’ve created a space for people building careers sustainably to connect with each other, with opportunities for co-learning and sharing resources,” Stella explains. “My role is to bring in experts to share their learnings and journeys, host Q&A’s, panels, and workshops.”

Stella also works with the communications team at the youth-led African Climate Alliance, sharing the impacts of climate change on people. “We always joke at our office – it's not about the whales or the dolphins! Of course, they are important, too, but what's happening now is not random. It's about people and their livelihood and dignity.”

Stella shares a powerful moment from her work. “There was a moment in a workshop where a young person spoke to a peer in a community across the city, and they were talking about how basically both of their houses had been affected by flood and heat. These light bulb moments where people are waking up and realising that we're part of something bigger is probably what makes me the most proud.”

At ACA, Stella’s work mainly involves the community’s youth. Together, they led the #CancelCoal movement, which just won the case against the South African government calling for an end to new coal. “The youth-led organisations are strong in South Africa, and that is hopeful,” Stella remarks.

Growing up in Cape Town, South Africa, Stella Hertantyo was often found in gardens, drawing plants and making potions from herbs. “I used to want to be a botanist growing up. That was my thing. I was particularly interested in plants that could be used for medicine. I probably forced my family to try too many potions I made,” we laugh.

Now, at a quarter-century old, that part of wanting to heal what hurts remains strong within her.

“I live in a country with such beautiful natural landscapes contrasting incredible injustice. And every year, like clockwork, very intense flooding. And the people who suffer from it live in informal settlements. They lose their homes, their belongings, and their people.”

As someone who exists outside the racial binary of South African culture—her father is an Indonesian, and her mother is a South African—Stella understands the unique privilege she can use to engage people in much-needed dialogues about the country’s environmental policies.

She is determined to use her coordinates in life to spark a connection to nature and its people, especially those who are struggling to understand how climate change affects us, depending on where we are in life.

“I have an idea for next year to create some kind of intergenerational storytelling space. I fear our elders will pass on without sharing much of what they know and who they are. I think this oral tradition and memory are important to capture.”

Stella points out that we are not reinventing the wheel as climate activists. “We are continuations of historic change-making.”

“We don't have to start from scratch, but we do need to listen better.”