PEGGY OKI : TO GENTLY FOLD COMMERCIAL WHALING

Peggy Oki Campaigns to Protect the Maui Dolphin, exclusive to New Zealand, the world's rarest and endangered ocean mammal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vYNyidN1mI

PEGGY OKI : TO GENTLY FOLD COMMERCIAL WHALING

Fold: (v.) 2. informal, to close for lack of funds, to fail financially.

Southern California, some time ago..............

Oranges grow in abundance; we hear the sound of wildlife; play in wetlands as the scent of lush vegetation wafts by. We visit the diner that's been there forever, enjoying the pulse of community life. But in the twinkling of an eye, it's all gone. Streets morph into highways, shops become malls; neighbours are now commuters, and people better known as consumers. By listening to Ry Cooder's album "Chavez Ravine", or by reading Michele Greene's "The Other Side of the Grove", we might understand the lightning speed of urban development in Southern California.

Peggy Oki grew up amongst one such urban transformation. She kept her love of outdoor pursuits alive by catching the surf at Bay St, Santa Monica, and surfing near the disused Pacific Ocean Amusement Park. A nearby shop, "Jeff Ho Surfboards and Zephyr Productions", became a rallying point for the local surfing community which included Peggy Oki. Then Peggy applied her surfing moves to skateboarding. As one of the Z-Boys, she was part of the most influential skateboard team in history. Her adventures here have been seen by millions in the movies "Dogtown and Z- Boys" and "Lords of Dogtown".

However, Peggy has always been passionate about environmental issues. Her ancestral home is Hiroshima, a city in Japan almost entirely destroyed by an atomic bomb, the first city to become such a target. Through family visits to Hiroshima, Peggy encountered first hand the personal, ecological, and social consequences of that unspeakable tragedy . She remembered the story of Sadako Sasaki, a young girl from Hiroshima who developed leukemia in 1955 from the effects of radiation caused by the bombing of Hiroshima. While hosptalised, Sadako's friend reminded her of the Japanese legend that if she folded 1000 paper cranes, she might be granted her wish to be well again.

Peggy Oki's "Curtain of 28,500 Origami Whales" project, the purpose of our meeting in Raglan last week, is inspired by that same Japanese legend.

The project is Peggy's own answer to the urgent need to increase awareness about the global impact of commercial whaling. The figure of 28,500 represents the number of whales slaughtered since the moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986.

With global public participation, Peggy aims to display her 5ft high-200ft long curtain of origami whales at the next meeting of the International Whaling Commission at Anchorage, Alaska, in May 2007. Several thousand origami whales have been folded so far. It's a great feeling to sit and fold with a diverse group of characters, even if - like me - you're not the best at origami.

Peggy's project had a tent display at the Maui Dolphin Day event , run by the Whaingaroa Environment Centre. The Maui Dolphin is the world's rarest ocean mammal species, and there are only about one hundred left in a small expanse of the North Island's coastal waters. On March 9, the day I arrived in Raglan, a Maui Dolphin had been washed ashore. The cause of its death will be analysed by Massey University. In the light of such scarcity, serious concerns have arisen about set-net fishing and seabed mining for iron in New Zealand.

The Maui Dolphin Day was full of fun, sun, music, mussel fritters, and idyllic scenery. It was a great place to find out that if all the planet's water equalled 1 litre, we could only drink .0003% of the 6ml that make up the freshwater content. But if we recycle one tonne of cardboard, we save 13 trees, 2.5 barrels of oil, and 31,780 litres of water.

It was a pleasure to chat with Peggy on the way back to the gorgeous Karioi lodge, to hear about her performing viola in a group to packed audiences, and to accompany her as she checked out the skate park adjacent to the Maui Dolphin Day festivities. As soon as she flies into LA, she'll be driving two hours north to Santa Barbara to partake in a celebrity event, where she'll be raising more awareness about her project as the Alaska meeting gets closer and closer.

Please visit www.peggy-oki.com/cu_origami.html to download an origami whale design, and fold with friends.

As Peggy said, "It's great to be back and to see all the wonderful fellow activists in the community. For such a small community, there's a lot of people doing great things (Xtreme Zero Waste; Whaingaroa Environment Centre; Department of Conservation). I appreciate that there's a lot of people here concerned with the situation of the Maui Dolphins".

ADAM GREENWELL – March 2007

STOP PRESS 2016: RAGLAN RADIO INTERVIEW WITH PEGGY OKI -"LET'S FACE IT CAMPAIGN" FOR HECTOR AND MAUI'S DOLPHINS -

http://www.lets-face-it-dolphins.com/news-blog/article-129-2014-02/inter...