Majka, Mary

CONVOCATION, OCTOBER, 1998
MARY MAJKA
to be Doctor of Science

Mary Majka is one of Canada's pre-eminent environmentalists. From the time she and her husband arrived in New Brunswick in the early 1960s, she has sought to protect wildlife, preserve habitat, organize public opinion, and educate people to value their natural and historical surroundings. She is more than a public-spirited citizen; she has become an institution, recognized throughout Canada and beyond for her knowledge of migrating birds and her commitment to environmental protection.

In her person, she epitomizes the global dimensions of environmentalism. She was born in Poland where as a child she grew to love nature, hiking near the Russian border with her father. Like so many others of her generation, her early life was shattered by war, and, torn from her home and family, she grew to adulthood in Austria where she attended high school and university, and became a medical doctor. Here she met her husband, also a doctor, and together they decided to emigrate to Canada. They settled eventually in New Brunswick, in the picturesque but remote countryside of Albert County. Her intention was to forego her medical career in order to concentrate on her family, her husband and two small sons, but the prospect from Caledonia Mountain soon convinced her that there were other things that needed doing. Appalled that New Brunswick permitted the arbitrary killing of bald eagles and other birds of prey, she called a conference of wildlife specialists, tackled the provincial government, and finally embarrassed it into amending the game laws to protect birds of prey and many other wildlife species.

From her earliest days in the province, Mary Majka has been a doer. She and her husband organized a field naturalist club in Moncton where she took up her life-long interest in educating children to the wonders of nature. She wrote for the local newspaper and hosted a nature program on Moncton television. She organized a nature program for children in Fundy National Park, gave lecture-tours of the beaches, and began writing and publishing articles, brochures, and books focused largely on the Bay of Fundy. With her co-worker, David Christie, she helped found the New Brunswick Federation of Naturalists. But her pride and joy was in her work to gain recognition for, and protection of, the great mud flats of Mary's Point where millions of migrating shorebirds stopped annually to feed on tiny shrimp as they wended their way from the Canadian Artic to their winter homes in South America. Mary became fascinated with the phenomenon: she and her family moved there, after buying and restoring an old abandoned farmhouse that looks out over the great tidal flats. Armed with bird-counts and other scientific observations of this unique site, she began to lobby for its protection. Through her efforts, the Canadian Wildlife Service purchased 2,500 acres along the upper Bay of Fundy including Mary's Point and created the Shepody National Wildlife Site. In 1982, Mary's Point was designated a wetland of international significance. Five years later, the governments of Canada and New Brunswick joined with the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network to designate Mary's Point as the first Hemispheric Shorebird Reserve in Canada. Today, Mary's Point, which has borne this name for over 200 years, is practically synonymous with Mary Majka. Here, she continues her research on the migrating habits of shorebirds, and watches, like a guardian, over their precious feeding grounds.

The secret of Mary Majka's success is her persistence. Where others say, "It can't be done," she invariably replies, "Why not?" Her head teaming with ideas, she has raised funds for one project after another, saving historic structures along with natural treasures in Albert County and beyond. She has ruffled some feathers along the way, but she has won the respect and admiration of all, even her critics. Her style is never abrasive, but if Mary tackles a Department of Government or a giant multi¬national company, they soon find out that she means to succeed, not for herself, but for the cause to which she has devoted her life.

If you want to sum up Mary Majka's philosophy in a word, as she does, it is love. It is love of nature and of all nature's creatures, including the human ones, who have so much to learn from her example. We in the University know how difficult learning is and that, indeed, some of life's greatest lessons are not learned here, but rather in wayward places like the muddy shores of the Bay of Fundy. It is humbling for us to say this, but in Mary Majka's presence, we can do no less. In honouring her today, may we contribute to her cause: one small woman from Poland is showing us that there are rare plants, endangered wildlife habitat and beauty all around us. Wake up, New Brunswick: Mary has a point.

From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 3