Help Find Susi a Forever Home

Help Find Susi a Forever Home

After treatment and surgery for breast cancer 5 years ago, Susi has faced a struggle only someone with her indomitable spirit could endure. Shortly after her diagnosis, she was given notice on her rental home of several years. By the time she moved into her 4th rental accommodation in as many years, she was diagnosed with a life-threatening heart issue and underwent open heart surgery. 5 weeks later, weak from surgery, she slipped and severely fractured her ankle.

On her birthday a few months later, she was once more given notice to leave her home and not long later, she learned that she had been given the wrong size heart valve. This resulted in extreme breathlessness and severe pulmonary pressure. She was told that another operation to fix the mistake would likely kill her. Running a series of tests early this year, a CT scan revealed a likely cancer in her lung, possibly caused by exposure to nuclear radiation while protesting the shipments of nuclear waste. Because of her extremely high surgical risk, an operation was ruled out and Susi started SABR (Stereotactic Ablative Radiation Therapy) in June 2023.

Since having to leave her last rental, she has been unable to find anywhere permanent to call home. Thankfully, a very generous friend has allowed Susi to stay in his unoccupied house while she commutes to endless hospital appointments. He needs to put it on the market soon and it is Susi’s greatest aspiration to raise enough money to be able to buy it – and not be forced to move again.

Weakened by the SABR treatment and a recent diagnosis of PTSD, Susi is facing a questionable future.

This from Susi in her own words:

Kia ora

I am extending a huge ask to the international community of like-minded souls, to those that care about our planet, our children’s future, to those who treasure our whales and all our fellow creatures, to those who work steadfastly in order that our oceans may be free of nuclear dumping, our air free of the proliferation of nuclear missiles, those for whom bathing in the rays of sunlight through the branches of a tree nearly one thousand years old immediately connects them with the divine; and those for whom the divisions between the haves and the have nots are unconscionable and immoral. It is you I am addressing.

Since the age of five, I have answered a calling, a feeling deep within the core of my being, to be of service. This has led me to a life of inspired and unrelenting activism, to my being called on over and over again to bear witness, to right the wrongs, to answer the call, to take up the mantel of non-violent direct action, to risk my life so that another may live. Over and over and over again. For much of this work, I received no financial reward. Nor did I expect to, if I am honest.

This life of service has meant that I am immensely rich in social capital, but have very little financial stability; and now that I am growing older, I am facing a number of serious health challenges. It is ironic that I have been the subject of a number of documentaries, winning awards at international film festivals, that people equate this ‘fame’ with wealth. It could not be further from the truth.

I am immensely proud of my contribution to the founding years of the largest environmental organisation in the world. I am deeply humbled by the fact that a rainbow coloured boat, borne of mine – and others – imagination, and the graft of many volunteers, kickstarted a movement to save the most magnificent of all beings.

I know there is something in the world that is creating a giant cancerous tumour, that is tearing us apart, that is commodifying the air we breathe and the water we drink. I also know that this tumour is interspersed with flowers and song birds and the salty waters of the tears we shed.

It is time now for me to rest, and rather than be at the beck and call of unscrupulous landlords who make promises but never keep their word, I am looking for somewhere to call my forever home.

This is why I am calling on you, my tribe, my community of heart, to help me purchase a home, a place where I may live out my final years in the knowledge that I will not have to tear up roots and move, yet again and yet again and yet again.

Māori have a saying: ahakoa he iti he pounamu. This means that although it is small, it is greenstone – that something small, given from the heart, is precious.

Please help in whatever small way you can to lay this ailing warrior to rest! No matter how small, whatever you can give, my heart will forever sing my gratitude!

With affection, Susi

Background Information

Susi grew up in the outskirts of London. She was born into an Argentinean family who had been given scholarships to study in UK. Her first act of environmental protection was as a five-year old – successfully stopping her father from chopping down a tree to let more light into the family living room. Her godmother, along with Bertrand Russell, were founding members of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring was often discussed around the dining room table. In April 1970, a few months after her 20th birthday, Susi joined the crowds gathered in Trafalgar Square at the World’s first Earth Day protests and decided that she would lead a life of activism.

Her father supported this vision, encouraging her with these words: “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.” When he died in mysterious circumstances appeared after refusing to return to Buenos Aires and a fascist dictatorship, her future was set.

Greenpeace, the world's leading environmental organization, began in the early 70s as a disparate group of hippies and environmentalists. Fifteen years later, it became an international force when – a few minutes before midnight on July 10, 1985 – the French Secret Service fixed two bombs to the hull of the nascent organization’s legendary flagship, the Rainbow Warrior, in an act of state-sponsored terrorism and murder.

It was Susi, whose dream to provide Greenpeace with their first wholly owned ship led her, and a small group of committed activists, to purchase an old Scottish fishing trawler being sold for scrap and turn it into the Rainbow Warrior. In this interview, recorded in 2003, Susi reflects on its tragic end.

Susi became a founding member of Greenpeace UK and subsequently Greenpeace International. She signed the cheque that bought the Rainbow Warrior, gave the boat her iconic name and the instantly recognizable rainbow with dove meme.

For Susi, the bombing was deeply personal – the Rainbow Warrior had become home to the crew who over seven years had engaged in death-defying protests against the slaughter of whales, been captured and held in custody by the Spanish Navy for 3 months, protested the dumping of nuclear waste and relocated the entire population of the island of Rongelap whose home had been poisoned by American nuclear bomb tests. In addition to being a hair's-breadth away from death when trying to stop a nuclear waste ship from docking (a policeman pulled her onto the wharf from a Zodiac that was being crushed), Susi went undercover to infiltrate, expose and help end the largest hunt of cetaceans ever known - the horrifying mass dolphin hunt in the Black Sea, where once again she was in great danger of losing her life – all part of her mission to stop gangsters, governments and corporations from destroying the only planet we have.

Footage from the 2009 documentary film "The Rainbow Warriors of Waikeke Island" by Suzanne Raes includes this interview with Susi on the origins of the Rainbow Warrior, and the crew's first action.

Susi has never given up saving the planet and the earth’s precious living creatures from destruction. These images of Susi and the Rainbow Warrior, and the “Warriors” who manned her over seven extraordinary years, provide further context to lives incredibly well lived.