Susi Newborn protesting the Fullers Ferry price hike for Waiheke Island. Susi was a co-founder of Greenpeace in the early 70s.
Susi Newborn protesting the Fullers Ferry price hike for Waiheke Island. Susi was a co-founder of Greenpeace in the early 70s.
Y’all know me, I’m the queen of asking and I wrote a bestselling book about it and all that jazz. I get asked daily — still — to share people’s Indiegogo, GoFundMe and Kickstarter campaigns.
I say no to 99.9 per cent of the requests because I’m an artist, not a daily news source for the world’s crowdfunds. But every once in a blue moon, I share one, and I make a personal appeal if it means a lot to me. This one means a lot to me.
My dear friend Susi Newborn — born in London to Argentinean parents and a long-time Kiwi — is 73 years old and an explosively compassionate life-long activist for peace and nuclear disarmament.
I met her at a local protest on Waiheke to stop a developer from building a yacht marina that was threatening to destroy the local penguin habitat.
She’s an iconic hero to many. She’s a hero to me. A co-founder of Greenpeace in the early 70s, she was one of the original crew on the Rainbow Warrior (at times, she was the only woman on the crew), and she lost a comrade the day it was bombed and destroyed by the French foreign intelligence agency in 1985 in Auckland, when the ship was on its way to protest against French nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll in French Polynesia.
Susi Newborn and Amanda Palmer on the beach at Waiheke Island, where Susi has been evicted from her rental while being treated for cancer.
I met Susi while I was living (and flailing) on Waiheke Island in 2021, and she became a close friend and true “auntie” to my son Ash while we were going through some of our loneliest and scariest moments during the pandemic. She helped ground me while I was solo mothering. At the same time, Susi was dealing with two huge health issues: ongoing recovery from breast cancer and open heart surgery. It was scary.
During this time, she was my zen mentor as she laughed and sighed through these hospital ordeals. And she still had time to eat and drink with me, share her stories about life and adventure, and build Lego and play games with Ash.
This lady means the world to me. Her heart, her fire. She even inspired a song that I started writing while in New Zealand for the new Dresden Dolls record … one about the Kintsugi Heart: the heart that just keeps on surviving after being pulled out and put back in and gold-glued together so many times. The resilience that comes with wear and tear. So much loss. She knows it more than anyone.
Susi’s been one of the victims of the brutal real estate crunch on Waiheke Island and she has just been evicted from her rental. She wants to buy a house and retire in peace so she can focus on her health and her family. I told her I would help her, and I told her the community here might give her a hand.
If there’s anyone on Earth who’s put in the karma hours and deserves a safe haven in her waning years, it’s this woman. She still participates actively in local politics and activism, even from her hospital bed when she’s in chemo. This woman just does not give up the good fight.
She’s a model human and inspiration to so many people. She’s honestly helped save the world, and she lives a real humble activist existence. She’s gold. (And If you want to read her published memoir, it’s called A Bonfire in my Mouth: Life, Passion and the Rainbow Warrior.)
Please share the story, please give her a small or large donation if you can, and thank you. Her goal is $150,000. She’s stalled at about $20k. I donated $1k. Let’s go.
