Peggy Oki: Allow Things To Unfold And You Will Find Your Purpose In Life


With an appreciation of flow and motion Peggy’s life has been always been driven by passion. From surfing and skateboarding to the intimate appreciation what she calls the ‘Cetacean Nation’. Discovering the transformative force of participation artwork through her Origami Whales project was the first step to realising that passion could be harnessed, amplified and ultimately inspire for a deeper purpose.

Peggy Oki is a Surfer, Skateboarder, Artist and Activist.

Once the only female member of the famous Zephyr Skateboard team from documentary ‘Dogtown and Z-Boys’: Peggy’s love of the outdoors inspires her to travel worldwide in search of good surf. In 2004, she founded the Origami Whales Project to raise awareness about commercial whaling. She has also developed the Whales and Dolphins Ambassador Program and led campaigns such as ‘Let’s Face It’, which petitions to save New Zealand’s critically endangered Maui’s dolphins and Hector’s dolphins.

Allow things to unfold and you will find your Purpose in Life. | Peggy Oki


Transcripts of the Video:

00:12
my god
00:20
hahaha
00:25
it’s a whale
00:35
break
00:42
oh well that was me in the background
00:46
saying oh my god while I was visiting
00:50
with some humpback whale researchers in
00:51
Alaska the guy on the deck shouting it’s
00:55
a whale
00:56
that’s captain Andy who happens to be a
00:59
humpback whale researcher with quite
01:01
some enthusiasm even after seeing
01:03
hundreds of humpback whales and I’ve had
01:06
a large number of encounters with
01:08
dolphins and whales myself and I still
01:10
feel very excited when I see them I’m
01:14
just inspired by the graceful movement
01:17
of a 100 to 150 tonne whale seeming to
01:20
be moving so effortlessly through its
01:22
few fluid movement in the ocean and I
01:26
emulate that style that’s just graceful
01:28
I love that graceful movement in the
01:30
things that I try to do in my surfing
01:32
and skateboarding and yes over 40 years
01:35
ago I was the only female member of the
01:38
famous Zephyr skateboard team featured
01:40
in Dogtown and z-boys we were known to
01:44
live a bit outside the box be a bit
01:47
rebellious while lots of kids were
01:50
trying to figure out how to stay out of
01:51
school we were getting into them to
01:54
skate the banks and getting into skate
01:57
the pools which led to our surfing style
02:01
that was a trademark vertical
02:03
skateboarding that led to what you see
02:05
in today’s X Games and of course I still
02:10
love surfing that I’ve been doing for
02:11
over 40 years the action of surfing
02:14
waves but also I get a lot from just the
02:17
thousands of hours I’ve spent sitting in
02:19
on my board waiting for waves in between
02:22
that time of just having the the rhythms
02:25
of the ocean beneath me and encounters
02:28
with sea life and and seabirds coming
02:30
around at the time that I was on the
02:34
skateboard team I was also studying
02:36
field zoology and environmental biology
02:38
I had a real interest in animal behavior
02:43
especially in the social behavior of
02:45
dolphins and whales they’re also known
02:47
as cetaceans and I refer to them as the
02:49
sea tation nation

02:51
or cos the largest member of the dolphin
02:54
family stayed together their entire
02:56
lives sperm whales
03:00
I am a sperm whale groupie they are the
03:04
world’s largest toothed mammal they
03:08
possess the world’s largest brain they
03:10
can dive to depths of 2,000 meters and
03:13
hold their breath for up to an hour but
03:16
what really touched me the most about
03:18
them is I was learning about their
03:19
behavior is that even in fatal
03:23
conditions where their lives are in
03:25
danger
03:25
they will never abandon their injured or
03:28
sick as our studying animal behavior
03:32
scientists were coming out and saying
03:33
that play is a sign of intelligence and
03:36
here we are with dolphins surfing
03:38
another connection that I feel to these
03:41
these beings as a surfer myself and
03:43
seeing dolphins as I’m surfing in their
03:45
surfing ways to whales also surf imagine
03:49
a school bus dropping in on a wave at
03:51
pipeline
03:54
it’s happened if that’s not enough to
03:58
impress you about cetaceans there’s many
04:01
stories of dolphins encountering humans
04:03
and this is one from Whangarei in new
04:06
zealand 12 years ago a lifeguard father
04:09
of three had his three daughters out
04:11
swimming for practice off of Ocean Beach
04:14
100 metres out when seven dolphins
04:17
approached them slapping their flukes
04:19
circling these swimmers almost as if
04:22
they were hurting them they weren’t
04:24
afraid of dolphins so they just kept
04:25
swimming and thought oh yeah this is
04:26
pretty cool but a lifeguard from the
04:29
shore salt was going on he thought it
04:30
was really odd too and he decided that
04:32
he was going to go check it out got on
04:34
his little boat went to just outside of
04:36
where the dolphins were and into the
04:38
water and what did he see a three metre
04:43
long shark a great white shark what a
04:47
great day to have dolphins swimming
04:49
around you in the 20th century alone
04:55
nearly 3 million whales were killed many
04:58
of them are still endangered in the
05:01
early 80s thanks to protests and public
05:03
outcry the International Whaling
05:06
Commission announced that in 1986 they
05:08
were going to have a moratorium on
05:10
commercial whaling a victory
05:12
we saved the whales I remember that day
05:17
I would remember that time that wow the
05:19
whaling was going to end despite the
05:24
millions of whales that have been killed
05:25
there’s never been a known attack of a
05:27
whale on a human imagine a world without
05:32
war revenge or retaliation one of
05:36
forgiveness and compassion I pondered
05:39
the wisdom of whales and I thought what
05:42
would it be like to look into the eye of
05:43
a whale so I created this painting of a
05:46
gray whales eye and then in less than a
05:49
year on Christmas morning in 1999 while
05:53
I was surfing a great spot down in
05:55
Southern California
05:56
catching really fun waves and I paddled
05:58
back out and sat on my board waiting for
06:00
my next wave a gray whale 15 meters away
06:04
from me just 15 meters away
06:07
lifted its head up out of the water like
06:09
the periscope of a submarine looking
06:13
around and it looked at me our eyes met
06:15
and I was just ecstatic I was blown away
06:18
I had no fear at all this whales so
06:21
close to me but I was just in awe and
06:24
then the whale just went back underwater
06:26
and right next to it another gray whale
06:29
surfaced raising its huge arching back
06:31
out of the water and just going back
06:34
underneath and they disappeared I knew
06:39
how rare that experience was
06:41
that’s very rare for a whale to come
06:44
that close to a human in their own
06:46
environment and so I felt I needed to
06:49
look into it what was going on with
06:50
whales at that time little did I know
06:54
that that experience was actually going
06:56
to be changing my life I found out that
07:01
despite the moratorium when the whales
07:02
are supposed to be protected in 1986
07:04
that they were still being killed
07:05
and numbers of up to over 1,800 whales
07:09
were being killed every year between
07:11
Norway’s commercial whaling activities
07:13
and the scientific whaling of Japan and
07:16
Iceland recently joining in as well
07:18
in 2007 the Japanese government
07:22
announced that they were going to
07:24
Antarctica to kill 50 humpback whales as
07:28
an artist I felt I needed to do
07:31
something about it and so I came up with
07:33
the idea of painting a portrait series
07:36
of fifty humpback whales based on photo
07:40
identification records of actual
07:42
humpback whales sighted off of
07:43
Antarctica the markings on humpback
07:46
whales are as unique as the fingerprints
07:48
on a human these are sentient individual
07:52
beings that I wanted to somehow help and
07:54
so I did this art series which may have
07:57
seemed a bit obsessive I was wondering
07:59
if people are gonna think oh she’s
08:00
really crazy but actually the show was
08:03
quite well-received and I was really
08:05
glad that I was able to do something
08:06
like that I also try to raise awareness
08:09
and appreciation of cetaceans by doing
08:11
large paintings of them such as for
08:13
whales this is a oil on board that was
08:17
one and a half meters wide of a sperm
08:19
whale fluke
08:20
and it’s big but a sperm will is
08:23
actually twice the size of that this
08:26
particular painting caught the attention
08:27
of the Santa Barbara whale festival
08:29
organizer who invited me to come up with
08:31
children’s whale art activities at the
08:33
Santa Barbara well festival so I thought
08:36
of origami whales what about a goal
08:41
something meaningful with this this
08:43
effort okay 1,400 origami whales to
08:47
represent the number of whales that were
08:49
going to be killed in that year it
08:52
seemed like a huge endeavor but the
08:54
whale festival we got children coming in
08:56
people of all ages folding origami
08:58
whales we got halfway there and working
09:00
with animal welfare organizations who
09:02
posted information about my campaign on
09:03
their web sites people from all over the
09:06
country of the United States people from
09:08
all over the world started sending the
09:10
origami whales and I reached that goal
09:12
and then was provided the opportunity to
09:16
present these whales to the
09:17
International Whaling Commissioner of
09:18
the United States so how am I going to
09:21
bring these whales in Washington DC the
09:23
most visually impactful way I’m not
09:24
going to show up with two big plastic
09:26
bag holes of origami whales how about a
09:28
plexiglass cylinder of all these OD
09:31
goggles as if they’re they’re kind of in
09:33
a display tank or something oh no way
09:36
these animals swim you know 50 miles a
09:39
day and there’s just such beautiful
09:41
beings that should never be kept in
09:43
captivity to tank so then I thought of a
09:46
curtain of origami whales so that each
09:50
individual whale would be recognized
09:52
when I shared the idea with my friend
09:54
she said let’s do it at my house and six
09:56
other friends came for an entire weekend
09:58
and we hand stitched these these origami
10:00
whales into a strand and that’s the
10:03
first curtain of origami whales that
10:05
went to Washington DC and there’s the
10:08
IWC Commissioner the United States at
10:10
that time since then I’ve created many
10:13
curtains of origami whales and dolphins
10:14
for different different efforts through
10:17
my origami whales project which leads me
10:20
to a little side note I guess when I
10:22
went to New Zealand in 1980 for my first
10:25
time following the endless summer
10:28
and I landed into Raglan and yes this is
10:31
my 19th time in Raglan I learned about
10:35
the Maui’s dolphin the world’s smallest
10:37
dolphin which is unique to New Zealand
10:39
and it’s also critically endangered in
10:43
2006 learning that there was only a
10:46
hundred and eleven of these dolphins
10:47
left I decided to create a curtain of
10:50
origami Maui’s dolphins through rallies
10:52
dolphin day but 111 being such a small
10:56
number I wanted to get attention to this
10:58
this issue and so decided to create a
11:01
curtain of 1111 Maui’s dolphins so that
11:05
the 1,000 mallies dolphins would draw
11:07
some attention people would go wow what
11:09
is that big thing of paper dolphins and
11:12
then right beside it
11:13
this little curtain of 111 just to show
11:16
how relatively few are left this curtain
11:20
was exhibited at the Tate pappa National
11:23
Museum of New Zealand for three months
11:25
and then it went to the Waikato Museum
11:27
in New Zealand for two months I felt wow
11:30
this is really great working with the
11:32
children of all ages and having our
11:34
exhibit in such such fine places it
11:38
takes a lot of people hundreds of people
11:39
folding origami whales thousands and
11:42
lots of volunteers but I was feeling
11:44
very frustrated about the lack of
11:47
information getting out about whales
11:49
being killed despite the moratorium when
11:51
they’re supposed to be protected so in
11:52
2006 I came up with the idea to create a
11:56
curtain to represent the number of
11:57
whales that have been killed that was
12:00
25,000 in that year but it was an
12:04
ambitious endeavor that I felt I needed
12:06
to take on and as 2007 was approaching
12:12
that number grew to 30,000 but I said if
12:15
I get that many whales I’m going to make
12:16
a curtain and I’m going to bring it to
12:19
the International Whaling Commission
12:20
meetings in Alaska which I did
12:25
since then I’ve exhibited the curtain
12:28
three years in a row at Whale day on
12:30
Maui the curtain is exhibited inside of
12:34
two massive festival tents joined
12:37
together and the numbers keep growing it
12:40
went to 32,000
12:42
thirty four thousand thirty six thousand
12:43
because each year I update the curtain
12:45
to represent that number of these
12:47
magnificent beings each paper whale
12:50
representing whale a real whale that was
12:52
killed that should have been protected
12:55
people of all ages have entered
12:57
thousands of people into the exhibit
12:59
they peek in and they see the sunlight
13:02
on the whales and the the air flowing
13:04
through the curtain with all these
13:05
colorful whales and they’re not quite
13:07
sure what to expect and as they walk
13:09
through this this long maze of whales
13:11
and read messages on them and realize
13:16
the numbers that they’ve just walked
13:18
past some people come out feeling a bit
13:22
overwhelmed and in tears and thanking me
13:25
for what I’ve done and I feel really
13:27
grateful for that opportunity to work
13:29
with people to create art that has
13:31
meaning an art that empowers through
13:34
participation art that has purpose I’ve
13:41
had the honour of meeting some of the
13:43
volunteers of the sea Shepherd
13:45
Conservation Society here’s one of them
13:47
and sea Shepherd Conservation Society
13:50
volunteers they go out to some dangerous
13:53
places in the world including Antarctica
13:56
they get in their ships and literally
13:59
get between a Whaler ship and a whale
14:03
putting their lives on the line with
14:06
direct action which is something that
14:09
very few people would be willing to do
14:12
in 2007 I invited captain Paul Watson to
14:16
view my exhibit of the origami whales
14:17
curtain and he came out to another event
14:21
a few months later and gave me this
14:23
medal of honour I was really thrilled
14:26
that my work was being acknowledged by
14:28
somebody who does some of the most
14:30
dangerous work to save whales well I’m
14:31
doing something on the other end of the
14:33
spectrum working with kids and people of
14:35
all ages to raise awareness for the
14:37
whales a few years ago as I was being
14:43
inducted into the skateboard Hall of
14:45
Fame one of my friends referred to me as
14:47
saving the world one whale at a time I’d
14:51
like to think that everybody who is
14:52
participated by folding origami whales
14:54
and helping me
14:54
stitch these curtains has been a part of
14:57
that lots of people can have passion
15:00
that you don’t have to be passionate
15:02
about seeing whales and dolphins it’s
15:05
turning passion into action that can
15:07
make a difference in the world I never
15:09
imagined that the Berlin Wall would come
15:12
tumbling down but some passionate people
15:14
did they took action and it happened I
15:17
never imagined that that nations across
15:20
the world would ban circuses from using
15:22
wild animals some passionate people did
15:25
and it happened I never imagined that
15:29
with one remaining female black Robin a
15:33
New Zealand black Robin that left that
15:36
that species would be brought back from
15:38
the brink of extinction some passionate
15:40
people did and it happened what sort of
15:45
thing do you feel passionate about that
15:47
you feel you could make a difference in
15:48
the world for this summer in Raglan
15:53
while I was teaching the whales and
15:54
dolphins ambassador program one of my
15:57
students 12 year old Ayla asked me for
16:00
some advice I said follow your heart
16:06
with vision and actions create your own
16:10
folds and you will connect with your
16:13
porpoise in life thank you
16:31
you

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