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Biography
Mya-Rose Craig (born 2002), also known as Birdgirl, is a British Bangladeshi ornithologist and campaigner for equal rights. In February 2020, she received an honorarydoctorate in science (D.Sc.h.c) from the University of Bristol, and is said to be the youngest British person to receive such an award.
Craig attends Chew Valley School. She created the non-profit organisation Black2Nature to run nature camps for black and minority ethnic children. Her honorary degree was awarded for that initiative, and in recognition of her advocacy for visible minority ethnic (VME) children and teenagers. She was nominated by Richard Pancost, head of earth sciences at the university.
She defines "VME" as distinct from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME), as the latter includes white minority ethnic groups, and she eschews the use of the word black to describe people of Asian origin. She calls on white-led organisations in the nature conservation and media and environmental sectors to do more to engage with young VME people, and speaks of the racism inherent in nature conservation.
Craig was a "Bristol 2015 Ambassador" during the city's year as European Green Capital.
She is a bird ringer and won the National Biodiversity Network's 2018 Gilbert White Youth Award for recording terrestrial and freshwater wildlife. She contributed to Chris Packham's A People’s Manifesto for Wildlife, at Packham's invitation. She spoke to a crowd of 10,000 at the Packham-organised People's Walk for Wildlife.
At the age of twelve, she had a column, "Birding Tales", in the Chew Valley Gazette. Her writing was also published in New Internationalist when she was thirteen.
She has made a number of national television appearances and interviews, including the BBC's The One Show and ITV's News at Ten. In 2010, she was featured in a BBC Four documentary (filmed in 2009, when she was seven years old), Twitchers: A Very British Obsession, alongside Lee Evans.
She lives in Compton Martin. Her mother is a Bengali Muslim with family from the Sylhet Division of Bangladesh.