Speaker Biography
Since childhood, Severn Cullis-Suzuki has dedicated her life to intergenerational justice and healing our relationship with the earth, and each other. Born in Vancouver to English and Japanese ancestry, she was raised in a scientific family with utmost respect for Indigenous teachings, and a deep sense of responsibility. As a child she started the ECO club with friends, which culminated in a speech at the 1992 UN Earth Summit at 12 years old, seeking to awaken leaders to their responsibility to future generations.
Since then, Severn has continued to challenge western society to confront its destructive legacy, speaking about climate change, the true costs of an individualistic society, the significance of Indigenous ways of knowing and being, and what each of us needs to do to be the change we need. Committed to interdisciplinarity and diversity towards finding solutions, Severn has a B.Sc. in Evolutionary Biology from Yale, an M.Sc. in Ethnoecology from UVic, and a PhD in Linguistic Anthropology at UBC (2025).
Severn’s collaborative work includes serving on the Earth Charter Commission (earthcharter.com), touring with Japan’s Sloth Club and the Million Mothers anti-nuclear movement, working with Haida Elders on language revitalization programs on Haida Gwaii, and many Canadian environmental campaigns. She has worked with filmmakers on documentaries and hosted two television series. From 2021 to 2025, Severn served as Executive Director of the David Suzuki Foundation.
Severn married Gudt’aawt’is Judson Brown, a member of the Haida Nation. Moving to Haida Gwaii, she joined his passion for the Haida language, and learned that Indigenous languages are portals to completely different relationships with the land, different possibilities and decolonized futures. With their two sons, they are committed to Haida language and ways of being, and continuing to practice traditional ways in our ever-changing context.
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