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Draft:Susi Newborn

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Susi Newborn (May 20, 1950 - December 31, 2023) is an author, documentary film-maker, environmental activist, a founding director of Greenpeace UK and co-founder of Greenpeace International. She has worked in a campaigning capacity for Friends of the Earth and Oxfam, and served on the Boards of Greenpeace New Zealand and Friends of the Earth New Zealand. [1] [2] She was also an executive director of the New Zealand non-for-profit group Women in Film and Television. [3]

Early Life and Education

Newborn was born in London to Argentinean parents who had won scholarships to study in the UK. When her mother was pregnant, her father took a job at the Argentinean Embassy as Press Attaché. Her first environmental protest was as a five-year-old when she successfully stopped her father from chopping down an old growth fir tree in order to let light into an otherwise gloomy living room. Her father was an early social justice advocate and her godmother was one of the founding members of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament spearheaded by Bertrand Russell. [4] [5] [6]

Newborn attended Northwood College until she was 16 and then a Swiss School in Genoa while doing British university entrance exams by correspondence. Her parents were living in Italy at the time. In 1990, she earned a Bachelor Degree in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic and in 2023, a Diploma in Proofreading and Editing.

In 1974 when her father died under suspicious circumstances, Newborn decided she would lead a life of activism. Her father had received a telegram demanding his immediate return to Buenos Aires and she has always been certain that his death was somehow connected to his refusing to return. Prior to his death, he had written the following to her: “Whatever you do from now on, it will be for the good of the world. You will dedicate your life to protecting Creation and you will be involved in great change. There will be people, however, who will wish you harm, who will not want you to succeed and those who will be jealous of you.”

Career

Soon after her father’s death, Newborn became involved with Friends of the Earth in London. Her first direct action took place on the ice fields of Newfoundland, interfering with the Norwegian commercial seal hunt.

Newborn co-founded Greenpeace UK in 1977 having decided that the then small grassroots organization needed its own ship to be truly effective campaigning against nuclear bomb tests and the slaughter of whales, seals and dolphins. After her friend found an old fishing trawler being sold for scrap, Newborn led the campaign to raise the money to purchase it, and gathered friends to help bring it back to life, turning it into the colorful and legendary ship, the Rainbow Warrior. She gave the ship her new name and designed the rainbow and dove motif painted on his hull.

In 1978 Newborn and its all-volunteer crew, except for the Captain, First Mate and Chief Engineer, set sail to the North Atlantic to confront the Icelandic Whaling fleet. One of few women crew members, Newborn rode in a rubber Zodiac across punishing waters to place her body between the harpoon guns and the fleeing, endangered whales.

In a later anti-nuclear campaign and the only woman in the crew of the Rainbow Warrior, she risked her life trying to stop a massive docking cargo ship carrying nuclear rods and radioactive waste whose captain was intent on crushing her Zodiac against a wharf, an incident Newborn describes in her book. [4]

Becoming disillusioned with the UK branch of Greenpeace, Newborn resigned as the British director in 1979. [7] [4]

After the 1985 bombing in Auckland Harbour of the Rainbow Warrior by the DGSE, the French secret service, Newborn moved permanently to Aotearoa / New Zealand and lived on Waiheke Island until her death in 2023.

She has also worked in mental health, [8] maternal mental health, and delivered programs in the maximum-security prison for at-risk inmates.

Newborn was a member of the advocacy group Stand with Palestine Waiheke, which successfully petitioned the Waiheke Local Board to fly a Palestinian flag from its roof, and call for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in December 2023. [9]

In the years before her death Newborn campaigned for affordable housing as a human right. She also took part in widely reported protests to ban double-decker buses on Waiheke Island, to protest increases in the price of ferry passenger ticket prices, and to oppose a marina development. [10] [11] [12] [13]

Published works

  • A Bonfire in my Mouth: Life, Passion and the Rainbow Warrior (HarperCollins, 2003) ISBN 10: 1869504682
  • Kit & Maynie: Tea, Scones and Nuclear Disarmament: a 48 minute documentary film co-directed with Claudia Pond Eyley [14]

Personal life

Newborn has three children and one grand-child, all of whom are living in Aotearoa / New Zealand. [15]

References

https://eyes-of-fire.littleisland.co.nz/ship/ https://eyes-of-fire.littleisland.co.nz/crew/newborn.html https://natlib.govt.nz/items?exclude_filters_from_facets=false&page=1&text=Newborn%2C+Susi https://waihekeradio.org.nz/podcast/a-conversation-with-susi-newborn/ https://kboo.fm/media/40113-susi-newborn-early-greenpeace-movement-activist-and-author-memoir-bonfire-my-mouth

  1. ^ WORTHY, By DIANA (2009-10-06). "Island quick to show it cares". Stuff. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  2. ^ "Eyes of Fire | Susi Newborn". Eyes of Fire. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  3. ^ WORTHY, DIANA (2010-05-26). "Susi celebrates soaring successes". Stuff. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  4. ^ a b c "Susi Newborn: A Bonfire In My Mouth: Life, Passion and the Rainbow Warrior". NZ Herald. 2024-01-03. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  5. ^ "Susi Newborn: The Environment | Waiheke Island Radio". www.waihekeradio.org.nz. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  6. ^ "From barefoot activism to global behemoth". NZ Herald. 2024-01-03. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  7. ^ "Greenpeace are warriors of 21st century". NZ Herald. 2024-01-03. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  8. ^ "From barefoot activism to global behemoth". NZ Herald. 2024-01-03. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  9. ^ "Waiheke board votes to fly Palestinian flag, Akl Council raises concerns". NZ Herald. 2024-01-03. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  10. ^ Worthy, Diana (2017-04-09). "A sight they didn't expect to see: 200 angry Waiheke Island residents block double-decker bus full of tourists". Stuff. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  11. ^ Greive, Duncan (2017-04-09). "Waiheke island hosts New Zealand's bougiest protest". The Spinoff. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  12. ^ "Waiheke Island Kennedy Point protesters warned police may be brought in if they don't leave". Newshub. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  13. ^ Franks, Josephine (2022-03-08). "Protect Pūtiki: Meet the protectors trying to stop a marina on Waiheke". Stuff. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  14. ^ WORTHY, By DIANA (2010-03-10). "Cannes beckons for Kit and Maynie film". Stuff. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  15. ^ WORTHY, By DIANA (2009-10-06). "Island quick to show it cares". Stuff. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
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