The Red Bulletin UK 07/22

Dr Mya-Rose Craig

Flying in the face of convention Thanks to a lifelong love of all things avian, the BritishBangladeshi ornithologist and diversity activist is forging new paths into the British countryside Words LAURA HOLT

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Photography OLIVER EDWARDS

Mya-Rose Craig’s brown skin and youthful appearance immediately set her apart from your stereotypical white, middle-aged bird-watcher.

But looks are just the start of it. The Somerset-born naturalist was only 11 when she set up her blog, Birdgirl; eight years on, it has had six million hits. “The unexpected thing was that people actually read it,” she says.

“Then, once I’d gained that platform, I realised I was interested in talking about more than just birds.”

At 13, Craig began organising bird-watching camps that provided access for minority ethnic groups, and then set up the Black2Nature project to tackle the lack of diversity in her field. She has since campaigned alongside Greta Thunberg, travelled to the Arctic with Greenpeace, and sparked a 14-publisher fist fight over her latest book, also titled Birdgirl.

In 2020, Craig received an honorary doctorate from Bristol Uni; she’s currently studying Human, Social and Political Sciences at Cambridge.

And if her twitching moniker makes her sound like a superhero, that’s because she quite possibly is.

What does bird-watching mean to you?

My parents stopped working in 2010 because my mum got really ill with bipolar. We’d always used birdwatching to keep us together, and after she was sectioned we decided that travel was what we’d do with our time and money. Flying to another country and immersing ourselves was incredibly good for us.

the red bulletin: At 17, you were the youngest person ever to have seen half of the world’s 10,000 bird species. Which stand out? dr mya-rose craig: I loved seeing a shoebill in Tanzania, a harpy eagle in Brazil, and the southern cassowary in Australia. Cassowaries are 6ft tall [1.8m], like [small] dinosaurs, with these strange crowns and huge talons that can shred people to pieces. As a kid, they captured my imagination.

What role can white-led organisations play?

Often, they spend money on projects, but maybe [they could work] with existing community organisations, rather than starting from scratch and assuming they’re the experts.

Why did you set up Black2Nature?

When I was growing up, the only people in the countryside who looked like me were myself, my mum and my sister. I set up a bird-watching camp, and everyone who signed up was a white, middle-class boy. So I went into Bristol to talk to parents and community organisations and track down people to bring to the camps. Black2Nature became a longterm project once I realised it might be a systemic issue. No one was talking about it. No one cared that people weren’t being given access.

The camps are still going strong: we’re doing 11 this year, and we’ve been given charity status.

How does it feel to be compared to Greta Thunberg?

I’ve met her twice: once at the Bristol Youth Strike 4 Climate [in 2020], and on a panel at COP26 [last year].

She’s done so much for the youth climate movement, which itself has

managed to expand the conversation around climate change from a niche issue to the heart of everything.

You’ve been everywhere from the Arctic to the Amazon. Which location resonated most?

My favourite was going to South America for six months – Colombia, Bolivia and Peru. In Bolivia, we went from the depths of the Amazon basin up to the Altiplano at 5,000m.

It’s such a beautiful country.

You’ve met many celebrities through your work: Chris Packham, David Attenborough… Any favourites?

I interviewed Jane Goodall and she was amazing. So practical and down-to-earth, self-aware and funny.

Things like gulping down a bit of whisky to help her voice before interviews. She’s lived a full life.

How did your honorary doctorate come about?

I got an email out of the blue. My parents thought it was a scam, because you had to click a link. It was incredible, especially as the previous few years had been difficult, with lots of online abuse. Campaigning can be thankless work, especially talking about diversity, which makes people uncomfortable. So this institution giving me an honour felt like a big deal. And I got to wear a funny hat.

You hold the record for the most northerly climate protest, at 82.4° N. What was that like?

One of my greatest achievements.

I was angry and I wanted to portray that. I had this lightbulb moment: “This is overlapping with that Global Day of Climate Action. We should do something.” I knew that image [Craig on the Arctic ice with a handdrawn sign] would be effective. It went viral. It showed people cared.

What does the future hold for you?

My life’s become much less exciting since [starting] university. My main goal is to get my degree. Then there’s COP27 this autumn – it feels like an important moment.

Birdgirl is out on June 30, published by Jonathan Cape/Vintage; birdgirluk.com

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