Tessa Laird

Susi Newborn was born in London in 1950 of Argentinean parents, has travelled the world, and now lives in New Zealand. Her father was a diplomat, but very early Susi expressed an interest in radical politics, saving a tree from being cut down in her front garden by hugging it and refusing to let go! As a student, she was a supporter of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and as a young woman, she was one of the founding members of Greenpeace in Europe. Susi helped purchase the second-hand ship that became the Rainbow Warrior, along with activists that protected endangered whales from being hunted, as well as keeping an eye on nuclear testing and the transport and dumping of radioactive waste. Susi was one of the signatories on that historical cheque, and it was her idea to name the boat after a book of Native American prophecies called Warriors of the Rainbow: Strange and Prophetic Dreams of the Indians by William Willoya and Vinson Brown.

Susi was once told by a Yaqui Indian woman that she should “follow the path with heart”, and in her autobiography, (A Bonfire in my Mouth), Susi demonstrates that she has spent her life doing just that. She writes candidly of a life lived to the full, spent protecting what she believes in, be it whales, seals, or ideals. She writes: “It wasn’t about animals, I figured. It was about Creation, full stop. It was about man’s destruction of the planet for the satisfaction of short-term greed. Hungry for power, the biggest dick wins.”

In 1978 the Rainbow Warrior left London to intercept Icelandic whalers in the North Sea. This was a boat with a difference – the crew used the ancient Chinese divining system the I-Ching for navigation, while their signal flags spelled out “Fuck Whalers.” The crew consisted of seventeen people representing eight nationalities, including New Zealander Hilari Anderson, ship’s cook, who could make a lemon soufflé in a force 11 gale in the North Atlantic.

Between her active campaigning, Susi spent time on the Greek island of Samos. She said, “It was my firm belief that if I were to become an effective activist, I needed to get away, sometimes for several months at a time, and do something entirely different – live among other cultures, learn a new language. That was the best way, I figured, of not becoming stale, jaded, or burned out. It was important to strive for a holistic, multidimensional approach to campaigning.”

In 1985 French secret agents bombed the Rainbow Warrior in the Auckland harbour, on her way to Moruroa Atoll to protest French nuclear testing in the Pacific. Photographer Fernando Pereira drowned when he attempted to retrieve his equipment. Years later, the French government paid compensation to Greenpeace, and eventually ceased their programme of nuclear testing.

Susi now lives on Waiheke Island, Aotearoa, with her husband, Kanak artist and activist Luc Tutugoro, and their children. She remains an activist and commentator in her particular field of concern: indigenous rights in the Pacific.

Tessa Liard, June 2007
Tamaki Makau Rau/Auckland
Aotearoa/New Zealand