July 2008

Swinging with the Jungle Girl

As she prepares to celebrate her 10th birthday, Bindi Irwin chats to us about her work, her friends and her family


Photo: © Richard Whitfield
/Headpress WORDS JULIE MCGLONE

When a young person is exposed to media and celebrity as much as Bindi Irwin has been, it would be easy to assume she’s simply another precocious child star. Don’t be fooled. After talking to Bindi it’s pretty obvious that she is the “real deal”... a mini messiah with a life purpose to save the world’s wild life.

Sure, children pick up a lot from their parents, and with the influence she had from her beloved late father, Steve Irwin, and her adored mother Terri, Bindi is bound to have a fairly strong conservation message instilled. But there’s a difference in sprouting learned lines to speaking with heartfelt passion and rock-solid certainty – and that’s what this young lady has in spades.


Bindi Irwin celebrates her
ninth birthday with Jess and Lisa
Origliasso of The Veronicas on
stage at Australia Zoo’s Animal
Planet Crocoseum
Photo: Getty Images/ Bradley
Kanaris“I do not think of myself as a celebrity, but I do think I am a teacher,” says Bindi, as she prepares for her 10th birthday party. “It’s not about ‘look at me, I’m so great’, I don’t think like that at all. It’s about getting people to take responsibility for keeping our animals safe and protected.

“Wherever I travel I just want to get that message out – that people can do stuff to help. I tell people that they can really help by doing little things, like making sure they don’t buy wildlife products.

“You know, by letting our animals become endangered and extinct, it’s like taking one brick at a time away from a beautiful house – pretty soon you’ll have no bricks and the house will fall down and disappear.”

Bindi has led a life most of us only dream about – in her few short years on the planet, she’s travelled the world; been interviewed by some of TV’s most famous names, including Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres and David Letterman; secured her own TV show, Bindi the Jungle Girl for Discovery Kids channel; become a seasoned singer and dancer, performing for crowds at Australia Zoo; and most recently, launched her own range of kids clothing, Bindi Wear International.


Bindi on the catwalk
during the global
launch of her Bindi
Wear International
fashion line at the
MAGIC convention in
Las Vegas
Photo: Getty Images/
Ethan Miller“It’s been so much fun being able to create these gorgeous clothes that have a great conservation message. Some of the sayings on the clothes are ‘Save It’ and ‘Tigers should be loved, not rugs’. I was involved in the designing and I also wrote the messages by hand. And all the soles of the shoes in the line and the swing tags we use are all recycled material,” she says, proudly.

Yet it’s not the big names and bright lights that impress her. Ask Bindi about the people she admires most (outside her family and Australia Zoo cohorts who always rank highest) are the likes of Captain Paul Watson, Canadian co-founder of Greenpeace and most recently in Australian news as the skipper of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Foundation ship, the Steve Irwin, which scoured the Southern Ocean this past summer, trying to thwart the Japanese whale hunt.

Also on her list of “good guys” are The Veronicas, the singing twins from Brisbane who have been great advocates of the Irwin family. “They’re so nice, so supportive. They’ve really helped us,” says Bindi.


At the 2006 Kids Choice
Awards with mum Terri Irwin
Photo: Corbis/Bob KingIt goes without saying that the support she refers to is not only in reference to Bindi’s wildlife warrior work, but in getting over the death of her father, Steve, killed tragically by a stingray on the Great Barrier Reef in 2006. The void left by Steve’s loss is deep, but Terri says Bindi and her younger brother Bob are absolutely remarkable in the way they’ve coped.

“A while after Steve died I went to talk to a psychologist because the kids were handling themselves so well,” says Terri. “I asked him if it was normal for kids to cope with grief in such a positive way and he said ‘that’s what we aim for’. That made me feel so proud of them.”


Bindi performs live with The
Crocmen during the G’Day USA
Aussie Family Concert in New
York City Center
Photo: Getty Images/
Scott WintrowAs a parent, Terri has nurtured Bindi every step of the way since Steve’s death. But she points out the difference in protecting and nurturing to smothering Bindi’s own character and sense of her own journey.

“Every decision I make is about empowering her,” says Terri. “I listen to her and take on board what she’s asking me. For example, it was her idea to try home schooling, so we did on the proviso that we revisit the decision every year to make sure it’s working for us all.

“We do travel a lot, but I think that’s eye-opening for her. For example, we were in Thailand and she saw poor people begging on the street. She really wanted to know about their plight and was moved by it. It’s inspiring to see she has a real social conscience and sense of responsibility and justice that is increasing as she grows as a person.”


Bindi feeds Harriet the
tortoise her favourite
hibiscus flowersBut it’s not all work for our young conservationist. She’s still a normal 10-year-old who loves nothing more than hanging out with her best friend Rosie, a buddy she’s had since pre-school days in the local Beerwah community. “We would stick up for each other and we got on really well. When I decided to do home schooling, we still remained really good friends. She’s great – we do stuff together… horse riding, paint our nails, do our hair.”

Press Bindi about what she might be missing out on in life and she’s incredulous. “Absolutely nothing. I am living my dream and doing what I love. I mean, I have a zoo! I get to sing and dance, I get to travel all over the world. I love to travel – you go on planes, see the world from above and see new places. Miss Emma, she’s my tutor, comes with us whenever we travel, so my study is always up to date.”


Five-year-old Bindi helps the
boys with a three-metre long
crocWhen she reflects on whether she’s more like her mum or dad, Bindi hesitates, then says: “Well, I’m not saying I’m really great or anything, but I really do think I’m like them both. I’m like my dad in that I’m tough on the outside and a big softie inside, but I’m also like my mum who I just think is so wonderful. She’s great, she has so much courage, she’s the bravest person I’ve ever known.”

And if God came down and said “Bindi, your conservation work is over, choose something else to do with your life,” Bindi is pretty sure what her response would be.


Eight-year-old Bindi with
her late father, Steve,
at Uluru in 2006
Photo: Getty Images“God would never, never say that to me. God knows that the work I’m doing is the passion in my life. I’m trying to help save God’s creatures – I could never do anything else. No, God would never say that.”

To celebrate her 10th birthday, Bindi and her family are having a “free day” at Australia Zoo for children 14 years and under on 24th July. “It’s totally free for kids that day,” says Bindi. “We’re having a snow theme – so come dressed up as a snowflake, a snowman or whatever. It’ll be great!”






Comments

There are no comments posted yet. Be the first one!

Post a new comment

Your name
Your comment