Severn Cullis-Suzuki (Canadá) is a culture and environment activist and writer, champion for the Canadian Earth Summit Initiative 2012 WE CANada, host of the APTN TV series ‘Samaqan – Water Stories, and board member of the Haida Gwaii Higher Education Society and the David Suzuki Foundation. She was also part of the Earth Charter Drafting Commission.
A longtime activist for ‘intergenerational justice’, Severn founded the Environmental Children’s Organization with friends at nine years old, which culminated in her speech to the UN at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 when she was twelve. Severn and the Skyfish Project brought the ‘Recognition of Responsibility’ pledge to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg 2002. Severn has participated in three speaking tours in Japan with the Namakemono Club. Severn is an Action Canada Fellow (‘04-‘05), has published several books in Japan, and is a co-editor and contributor for the book Notes from Canada’s Young Activists (Greystone books, 2007). She holds a B.Sc. in Biology from Yale University and a M.Sc. in Ethnoecology from the University of Victoria, where she studied with elders from the Kwakwaka’wakw First Nations. Severn lives on the archipelago of Haida Gwaii off the coast of British Columbia where she is studying the Haida language with her husband and two sons.