Flock Together (Ollie Olanipekun and Nadeem Perera): birding collective for persons of colour – conversation with Babs Gons

Who is nature for? How accessible is a large, green park or a forest full of woodpeckers, martens and deer? Anyone can walk through, so it would be easy to think that they’re accessible to all. But when the young birdwatcher Nadeem Perera discovered the massive Richmond Park near London as a teenager, he realised: I’m about the only Black visitor here. And the people from my family and my neighbourhood don’t come here. So together with advertiser and fellow nature lover Ollie Olanipekun, he founded Flock Together: the first birdwatching collective for people of colour. What started as a walk in the park, quickly grew into a movement that combined enjoyment and activism – with almost 30,000 followers and a monthly nature walk with large groups of hikers. The group’s main message is: you are nature, nature is you. Nadeem Perera and Ollie Olanipekun recorded their story in the book Outsiders. During the Nature’s Narrative event, the birdwatching authors will be interviewed by none other than Babs Gons.

English spoken event