Earth Friendly Equals Child Friendly, A TED Video from Raffi

Respecting Earth and Child: Connecting the Dots

“I am calling on a culture of respect for the child and our Mother Earth.” — Raffi

Known to millions simply as Raffi, Raffi Cavoukian is a renowned Canadian singer who is founder and chair of the Centre for Child Honouring on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia. The Centre serves as an education & communications hub for the advancement of Child Honouring as a universal ethic.

Filmed at TEDxVictoria on November 19 2011.

http://www.childhonouring.org
http://www.tedxvictoria.com

About Raffi imageAbout Raffi

Raffi CavoukianCMOBC (born July 8, 1948), better known by his stage name Raffi, is an Armenian-Canadian singer-songwriter, author, essayist and lecturer. He has developed his career as a “global troubadour,” to become a music producer, author, entrepreneur, and founder of the Centre for Child Honouring, a vision for global restoration.

Once called “the most popular children’s singer in the English-speaking world” (Washington Post, May 31, 1992) he is well-loved by the children of the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s for his popular children’s songs. His autobiography, The Life of a Children’s Troubadour, documents the first part of his award-winning career.

Some of Raffi’s best-known children’s songs are “Bananaphone,” “Baby Beluga,” and “Down by the Bay.”

Most of Raffi’s children’s albums include small, simple, folk instrumentations, prominently featuring Raffi’s vocal and guitar work. Early works included contributions from Toronto-area folk musicians, including Ken Whiteley and Bruce Cockburn. Raffi also incorporated many world music sounds into his records.

Raffi preferred to play in small intimate settings. In his autobiography, he notes that he turned down a very lucrative offer to perform a concert at Madison Square Garden, because he thought the venue was too large for him to connect to children.

He also wrote that early in his career, he found it difficult to perform for younger kids (under 3 years old) because their short attention span was distracting to him and to the rest of the audience. This led to a hiatus from children’s performing in the mid 1980s.

Raffi is currently the president of Troubadour Music Inc., a triple-bottom-line company he founded to produce and promote his work according to his ethical standards.

Advocacy

Raffi’s recent musical work focuses on social and environmental causes and appeals to the generation who grew up with his children’s music (“Beluga Grads”) to effect change in the world. He also promotes those causes through his books, academic lectures and as a speaker. In 2007, Raffi wrote and produced the single, “Cool It,” a rockabilly call to action on global warming, recorded with Dr. David Suzuki in the chorus. “Cool It” was the theme song for Dr. Suzuki’s recent Canadian tour to promote action on climate change.

Child Honouring

In recent years, Raffi has devoted himself to “Child Honouring,” his vision for creating a humane and sustainable world by addressing the universal needs of children. The Child Honouring ethic is described as a “vision, an organizing principle, and a way of life—a revolution in values that calls for a profound redesign of every sphere of society.”[1] His “Covenant for Honouring Children” outlines the principles of this philosophy.[2]

In 2006, with Dr. Sharna Olfman, he co-edited an anthology, Child Honouring: How to Turn This World Around, which introduces Child Honouring as a philosophy for restoring communities and ecosystems. It contains chapters by Penelope LeachFritjof CapraDavid KortenRiane EislerMary GordonGraca MachelJoel BakanMatthew FoxBarbara Kingsolver, and others. The book’s foreword is by the Dalai LamaResisto Dancing: Songs of Compassionate Revolution is the companion music record album for that book.

In a 2006 speech, Iona Campagnolo, Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, referred to Child Honouring as a “vast change in the human paradigm.” [3]

Raffi advocates for a child’s right to live free of commercial exploitation and he has consistently refused all commercial endorsement offers. Raffi’s company has never directly advertised nor marketed to children. In 2005, he sent an open letter to Ted Rogers of Rogers Wireless, urging them to stop marketing cell phones to children [2]. He has also turned down a film proposal for “Baby Beluga” because of the nature of the funding, which was based on exploitative advertising and marketing.

Raffi has been hailed for his work as “Canada’s all time children’s champion” (Toronto Star, March 10, 1996).

In October 2006, Raffi was presented with the Fred Rogers Integrity Award by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood at the Judge Baker Children’s Center in Boston, for his consistent refusal to use his music in endorsements that market products directly to children.

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