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Severn Cullis-Suzuki

Born and raised in Vancouver, Severn Cullis-Suzuki has been active in environmental and social justice work since kindergarten. At age 9, she and some friends started the Environmental Children's Organization (ECO), a small group of children committed to learning and teaching other kids about environmental issues. They were successful in many local projects, and also in raising enough money to go to Rio during the 1992 Earth Summit, with the aim of reminding the decision makers of the generation that the conference would ultimately affect. The goal was reached when 12-yr-old Severn closed a Plenary Session with a powerful speech to the political representatives.

Since then Severn has been speaking to schools and corporations, and at conferences and international meetings. Often speaking on the necessity of defining our values, acting with the future in mind, and on individual responsibility, she is passionate about encouraging young people to speak out for their future.  In 1993, Cullis-Suzuki received the UN Environment Program's Global 500 Award at a ceremony in Beijing, China.  She was on the UN’s Earth Charter Commission from 1997-2001. 

An accomplished television host and presenter, she has appeared and participated in many programs in Canada, the U.S., and Britain, including hosting Suzuki’s NatureQuest, a children’s television series that aired around the world on Discovery Channel. She has also written numerous articles on environmental issues for magazines and newspapers, and has also published two children’s books: Tell the World with Doubleday Canada, and The Day You Will Change the World, with Gakuyo Shobo in Japan.

The First Nations people of the British Columbia have been a major influence on Severn since she was very small.  She has worked with and learned from the First Nations peoples of BC, as well as Southeast Asia and the Amazon.  She has been honoured by three British Columbian First Nations-- she was adopted into the Haida Nation and given the name Killthgula Gaayaa.  She also has been named Mah Nulth Athluk, by the Nuchaanulth people, and is also an adopted member of the Heiltsuk Nation.

Severn is passionate about the natural world because she loves being outside.  She loves kayaking, rafting, hiking, fishing and snowboarding.  In 2000, she and five girlfriends celebrated the millennium by cycling across Canada in a campaign for clean air called “Powershift 2000.”  In the summer of 2001 she worked for two months at the Pinkeiti Research Station in the Xingu valley of the Brazilian Amazon, contributing to her B.Sc. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Yale University in May of ‘02.

In the spring of 2002, Severn and some friends spearheaded an internet-based think-tank called The Skyfish Project (www.skyfishproject.org) which aims to find ways to live and work in line with their ideals. And as member of Kofi Annan’s Special Advisory Panel, she and members of the group brought their first project, a pledge called the Recognition of Responsibility (ROR) to the recent UN World Summit in Johannesburg in August 2002. Their trip also was the subject of a documentary film that aired on CBC’s long running documentary series, The Nature of Things (aired in January 2003). The African trip was followed up by a month-long speaking tour of Japan in November, 2002 promoting the ROR campaign. After trekking in Nepal with her mom this spring, she traveled up through Northern BC with other Skyfish Project members to Skyfish lake, near the Spatsizi plateau.  Their trip was the subject of a documentary film in Japan called “Spaceship Earth,” that aired in September.

Sev is currently an Action Canada fellow and is doing a Master’s degree in Ethnobotany at the University of Victoria.