Another week, another amazing environmentalist to celebrate. In honor of the second week of Women’s History Month I present you a truly inspiring young woman, Ta’Kaiya Blaney. 

Blaney is from the Tla’Amin First Nation in Canada and witnessed firsthand the effects of deforestation. The British Columbian logging industry’s rapid pace made it so that her Nation’s elders could no longer build traditional canoes.  

Her activism started young. After learning about Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, Blaney decided to use her voice, no matter how small,  to decry the intrusion on First Nation lands.

At 10 years old, Blaney wrote the beautiful yet heartbreaking song, “Shallow Waters” in response to the pipeline including such heartbreaking lyrics like “Splashin’ around in the summer heat, but now it’s just oil up to our knees.”

Blaney and Greenpeace traveled to Vancouver to hand in a copy of her music video but was threatened if she went further than the lobby she would be charged with trespassing. Blaney said in an interview with The Globe and Mail “Yes, large corporations can be afraid of a 10-year-old girl.

But Blaney’s voice was not silenced. She later made the inspiring ballad “Earth Revolution” and performed her entrancing song “Turn the World Around” at the International Tribunal on the Rights of Nature. Blaney’s creative activism transcends music, she spoke at the United Nations and delivered an eloquent TED talk. 

Blaney is now 16 years old but is not slowing down in her activism. She continues to defend indigenous people’s rights and works to encourage the world to respect our shared waters and land.  

Read the first Women’s (Green) History Month Spotlight here