10/07/2025
In a world quick to forget the women behind the revolutions, let us remember Susi Newborn - a bonfire in our mouths, a warrior of the rainbow.
Before the bombs, before the headlines, before the Rainbow Warrior was a martyr - there was Susi Newborn.
A founding member of Greenpeace UK and Greenpeace International, Susi Newborn played a pivotal role in shaping one of the most iconic symbols of global environmental resistance. In 1977, it was her proposal that set in motion the purchase of a modest North Sea trawler, a vessel she named Rainbow Warrior, inspired by an Indigenous prophecy of earth defenders rising in a time of crisis.
🌈 She wasn’t just behind the ship — she was behind the vision.
✊🏼She helped craft the kaupapa that would define decades of non-violent direct action.
☢️ She stood at the forefront of anti-nuclear activism when silence was safer.
🌿 She challenged patriarchy and power, inside the movement and out.
The Rainbow Warrior would go on to confront whalers, nuclear states, and governments alike until it was bombed by French agents in Auckland Harbour on this day 10 July in 1985, tragically killing comrade Fernando Pereira.
But it never would have sailed without Susi.
Susi Newborn 🌈 🕊️
1950-2023
