Flight of the Hummingbird: A Parable for the Environment

Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas has worked on finding progressive solutions to contemporary social and environmental issues in the pacific archipelago of Haida Gwaii. Recalling that substantive changes depended on the deeds and voices of people from small villages he echos the Hummingbird’s message by saying “Only the unlikely become heroes”. His artwork is published and exhibited in Asia and North America and a full length Haida Manga book will be released in 2009. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Wangari Muta Maathai was born in Nyeri, Kenya, in 1940, the daughter of farmers in the highlands of Mount Kenya. She is the founder of the Green Belt Movement, which, through networks of rural women, has planted over thirty million trees across Kenya since 1977. In 1986 the Movement established a Pan African Green Belt Network, which has taught people from other African countries the Green Belt Movement’s approach to environmental conservation and community building. Several African countries have since started similar successful initiatives. She lives in Nairobi, Kenya.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is the head of state and the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. He was born on July 6, 1935, to a farming family in a small hamlet in Taktser, northeastern Tibet. At the age of two, in accordance with Tibetan tradition, he was recognized as the reincarnation of his predecessor the 13th Dalai Lama. In 1989 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent struggle for the liberation of Tibet. He has consistently advocated policies of non-violence, and he also became the first Nobel Laureate to be recognized for his concern for global environmental problems. He lives in Dharamsala, India.