This countdown to Christmas/Kirihimete, I gift to you… inspiration. Over the following six days, I will introduce a few of many people that inspire my mahi at SEA SOCIETY and in my personal life.
Meet the kind, tenacious, resilient and hard-working Jenny Campbell. Wāhine Jenny is a local of Southland and a member of the Te Rau Aroha marae. For Māori Language Week, she thoughtfully shared her story on SEA SOCIETY of growing up Māori in Aotearoa and not being able to speak Te Reo in school. Nowadays, Jenny is growing her knowledge of Te Reo through Te Wānanga o Aotearoa.
Jenny raised two daughters as a single parent, and taught biology and maths for 20 years. Thereafter, she worked as a family support worker for mental health for approximately 30 years, and today she advocates for women against violence.
In her 20’s, she joined Aotearoa’s leading NGO Forest & Bird, and remains on the Forest & Bird Southland Branch Board. She spearheaded Te Whenua Awhi/Invercargill Environment Centre, which was open for eighteen years. During which time a Waste Buster’s group initiated a recycling scheme as previously all waste went to landfill, specifically into the estuary that is now a picturesque walkway around Pleasure Bay lagoon in Invercargill. One of the latest projects she is involved in is Coal Action Network Aotearoa, which aims to stop new and expanding coal mines in Aotearoa to prevent climate change.
When I recently caught up with Jenny for a coffee, I asked her what her family thinks of her decades as a voluntary environmental activist, “They think I’m quirky”, she laughed.
“If I see something that needs to be done, I’m inclined to leap in, in spite of not actually knowing what to do.” – Jenny Campbell
Photo: Supplied.