Natalie Kyriacou OAM: Nature’s Last Dance — A Call to Action, A Rebellion, A Love Letter
Natalie Kyriacou OAM. Photo: Lucy Parakhina
Cultural Warning
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are respectfully advised that this article contains the names of people who have passed away. We acknowledge and honour their memory, and recognise the importance of cultural protocols when sharing their stories.
A long-time environmentalist is taking a fresh approach to environmental issues, sharing stories from around the globe that highlight both struggles and triumphs. Her mission is to steer people away from the relentless doom and gloom often associated with environmental discourse and inspire them to fall in love with nature. Through this connection, she hopes we can collectively rise against injustice while safeguarding the very essence of life itself—the natural world that sustains us.
In this interview with The Biophilic Blueprint, Natalie Kyriacou OAM shares the inspirations, stories and challenges behind her new book, Nature’s Last Dance, revealing why advocacy, imagination and a touch of joy are indispensable in the fight to protect our world.
Kyriacou is an award-winning environmentalist, presenter, and charity director on a mission to spark curiosity about the natural world—and the author of Nature's Last Dance: Tales of Wonder in an Age of Extinction, released August 26 2025.
Nature’s Last Dance: the call
Kyriacou told The Biophilic Blueprint she has noticed a worrying trend: people “disengaging from nature.”
“Environmentalists are up against a huge amount of challenges, but the way that we're talking about the environment, it can be really off putting for many people. It is just constant doom and gloom and the same things being said over and over again,” she explains.
For Kyriacou, being an advocate has always meant going beyond highlighting problems. For her, the environment is not just a backdrop or a political issue—it is life itself.
“It is the air that we breathe. It is the reason that we are able to eat, build homes, live our lives, have livelihoods. So, I see that as obviously quite important, and I also see it as a human rights issue—but also it brings us immense amount of joy,” she explains.
“It shapes our culture, our society. It's shaped human civilisation.
“The environment is fundamental to everything we are—we are nothing without nature. I care what happens in the world, I care what happens to other people. I care what happens with species. Because why wouldn't I?”
Natalie Kyriacou.
Kyriacou is the Founder and Chair of My Green World, a Board Director at Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife, a Board Director at CARE Australia, a W20 Delegate (official G20 engagement group), a UNESCO Green Citizens Pathfinder. She sits on the XPRIZE Global Brain Trust for Biodiversity and Conservation.
Her accolades include the Medal of the Order of Australia and the Forbes 30 Under 30 Honour for her services to wildlife and environmental conservation in 2018. She was a United Nations Environment Programme Young Champion of the Earth Finalist. She is one of LinkedIn’s 2022 ‘Top Green Voices’ and named as one of The Australian’s 2022 ‘Top Innovators’.
“I'm an advocate at heart,” Kyriacou tells The Biophilic Blueprint.
That deep care led her to a question that shaped her latest book: what role could she play in “turning the dial” and inviting more people into the fight for nature?
Nature’s Last Dance evolved into a story of survival and extinction, of life and death, of curiosity and destruction, of unimaginable joy and harrowing sorrow.
“It was very much written from the heart because I care so much about this. I'm aware, this isn't just about me. This is about engaging other people and getting other people to join this movement.”
Writing a story of nature and humanity: the rebellion
Kyriacou wanted to write for people who may never pick up a book about the environment and for those who feel disconnected—and even those who might actively disagree with her.
“I wanted this to be the environmental book that could reach mainstream and not be a niche environmental book,” she explains. “I wanted it to cut across social and political divisions and find ways to help people fall in love with nature and maybe even protect it.”
The book, she says, was guided by a desire to tell the story of nature and humanity in ways that were quirky, sometimes joyful, sometimes tragic.
“There were so many stories I couldn't fit in the book, so choosing which ones to include was really agonizing. It was part instinct and part a deliberate desire to shine a light on communities, species and stories that are often overlooked or excluded from mainstream narratives.
“But I also was considering the audience. My main thought was, how do I get people to fall in love with nature?”
A Journey Through Wild Places
Before beginning the book, Kyriacou took two months off work to travel through Latin America, immersing herself in wild places and giving herself permission to “switch off for a while.” Returning to Sydney, she felt her creativity come back online and the urgency of the times invited her to create something new.
“I thought, we need to be more creative. We need more stories. We need more joy. We need more humour.
“We need to experiment with different styles of storytelling, to not just appeal to the people that already think like us, but to appeal to people that don't think like us or disagree with us.
“It came at a time when I just felt wow, this division and these messages that are almost on repeat in the making the news headlines … they aren't helping anymore. We're not winning people over.
“We're not helping people fall in love with nature.
“This book was my call to action and my rebellion and my love letter,” Kyriacou passionately describes.
The stories span a vast spectrum—farmers, tradespeople, politicians, everyday citizens. They cross politics, economics, culture, fashion and human evolution. They move between despair and hope, between injustice and resilience.
Shedding light on the hidden: “Sacrifice zones”
One theme Kyriacou explores is the notion of “sacrifice zones.”
Sacrifice zones are places that are disproportionately harmed or exploited for industrial or economic gain, often at the expense of the people and ecosystems that live there.
“Sacrifice zones are areas of the world that we deem okay to ruin the most, and they are usually in communities or countries that are poor or marginalized, or black communities or brown communities or indigenous communities,” Kyriacou explains.
“Wittenoom in Western Australia is an example,” she says. Wittenoom is in the Pilbara region of Western Australia on the lands of the Banjima people.
“It was the Wittenoom asbestos mines, and this contamination, which is a now contaminated zone, and it has caused a rare type of cancer in a significant portion of the Indigenous community that were working these mines.
“It was a sacrifice zone.”
She also points to “Cancer Alley” along the Mississippi River in the USA, where predominantly Black communities live. “They have some of the highest cancer rates because they’re living amongst industrial sites,” she says.
“These regions and zones are carefully selected with the view that the people that live there don't have a powerful enough voice in society to voice their concerns,” says Kyriacou. “It is rooted in colonisation, and it's quite devastating.”
According to the Climate Reality Project, these facilities often are built near poor and Black towns without the political muscle to block them, leading to some of the highest cancer rates in the nation.
“As I was writing the book, there was campaign underway by a wonderful filmmaker who made the film Yurlu—it is about Wittenoom asbestos mines. Her film, and the documentation of this and the work of Indigenous communities led to a commitment from the government to clean up this site,” Kyriacou shares of the ways people are pushing back.
“That’s one example of a positive change,” Kyriacou says.
Award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker Yaara Bou Melhem documented Wittenoom in her film Yurlu / Country, following the late Banjima Elder Maitland Parker in his final year of efforts to preserve his culture and heal his homeland, devastated by what is considered Australia’s largest contaminated site. Maitland battled mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer caused by asbestos exposure, and died on January 25, 2024.
“There are examples all over the world of communities, activists, even politicians, United Nations—that are actively fighting for these communities. So, a lot of it is still underway.
“Some of it is still hidden. But these stories, I think, are becoming more and more visible, and I hope, with my book, it only adds to that.”
Photo: Chloe Paul.
Bridging Divides Through Nature
But if there is one thing that worries Kyriacou as much as the climate crisis, it is social, political and cultural division.
“We just have a culture now where people are just screaming at each other in the comments of the social media post or arguing.
“In Australia, decades-old political arguments means we're not getting anywhere. I worry a lot about this. I worry how people speak to each other. I worry that we are so focused at the moment on what sets us apart, and less focused on the things that we have in common, of finding common ground and working towards solutions together with empathy and respect.”
Her book aims to highlight the “joys” and “incredible things” people can achieve when they come together. “Individuals are powerful in driving action when it is wedded to or when it's woven into this collective momentum … that is our strength, our sense of community and coming together.
“We need this deliberate and collective community-led effort to reshape the way that we think about society.
“So this book aims to really highlight this community momentum—how powerful communities can be when you bring together a diversity of voices and perspectives and you channel that into something positive for the world.”
Even small acts—caring for a neighbourhood park, protecting a patch of green space, joining a birdwatching group—can create ripples of change, she says.
Stories of hope and resilience
Kyriacou was determined that Nature’s Last Dance does not become another tale of despair.
“I feel really privileged. I spent so much time talking to people that are doing the most extraordinary work to protect nature and communities,” she says. “I met people who have helped bring species back from the brink of extinction, people who have started movements that have seen hundreds of 1000s of people take to the streets to call for better environmental protection.”
“I met with people who are awake at all hours of the night to rescue injured wildlife, people who have changed laws to protect nature, people who nurse injured wildlife back to health. People who have taken the government to court over the rights that protect future generations and won. People that have rewritten laws to recognize rights of nature.”
She shares stories of a 12-year-old girl who promised to protect an endangered owl, and Pacific Island leaders who have become “towering voices for environmental justice”.
“There’s this incredible community of people that are doing the most extraordinary things for nature.”
Kyriacou points to birdwatchers, a “quirky, kooky, inspiring subset of humanity”, who often become environmentalists because sustaining birdlife requires healthy ecosystems. She said birdwatchers are also an example of how slowing down and observing wildlife can be transformative.
“The people that aren't bird watchers don't get bird watching. They don't understand it. But I think that the premise is quite simple. It is people that step outside, look up and see the world around them, and they fall in love. It's as simple as that. They fall in love with this process, with birds, with looking up, looking around them. And when you fall in love, you act, you fight to protect those things.”
“It’s important that people read these stories so they won't feel disconnected and overwhelmed by the scope of environmental challenges, but also so they can see some examples of what people are doing. And maybe they want to lend a hand. Maybe they want to get involved.
“If a 12 year old girl can spend her time protecting owls and teaching adults about forests, then surely we can do something too as adults.”
Readers are also encouraged to explore actionable ways to engage, such as joining community conservation projects, participating in citizen science, advocating for stronger environmental laws, or supporting local Indigenous-led initiatives.
A Lasting Contribution: a Love Letter
For Kyriacou, writing Nature’s Last Dance demanded her whole self—and is a culmination of her life’s work.
“It was everything, my whole brain and heart. It's really deeply researched, it's imaginative and playful and heartfelt. I really wanted it to inform and provoke and to inspire. So, it’s my contribution to the enormous efforts of millions of people who fight for the environment every day.
“I hope that in a small way, I've been of service to their work.”
References & Further Reading
1. Kyriacou, Natalie. Nature’s Last Dance. 2025. www.nataliekyriacou.com
2. Climate Reality Project. “Sacrifice Zones.” Accessed 2025. https://www.climaterealityproject.org/sacrifice-zones
3. Bou Melhem, Yaara. Yurlu / Country. Documentary film. 2023. https://yurlucountry.com