Rural Racism and Reclaiming Space in the UK

For centuries, people of color around the world have been denied access to public lands, and been estranged from their own through colonialism and violence.

Even now, simply going for a walk in the woods can be prohibitively expensive or involve overcoming obstacles like rural racism and bad infrastructure.

In Britain, despite making up 13% of the population, POC make up only 1% of visitors to national parks. Sam Siva is a grower, writer and organizer with Land in Our Names, a collective that aims to reconnect Black and POC communities in Britain with the land. They also work with the Right To Roam campaign, which demands greater rights of access to rural land so that everyone can enjoy the benefits of being in nature. Siva, who uses they/them pronouns, spoke to AJ+ about how their work reimagines the relationship between people of color and nature.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Tell us about Land in Our Names and the work you’re doing.

Land in Our Names is a very small collective of Black people and people of color (BPOC), working at the intersections of climate justice, land justice and racial justice, as a means to liberate all people.

We're trying to heal our relationship with the land and achieve self-determination through telling our stories and sharing experiences. We’ve worked on podcasts and zines, done research on the experiences of BPOC farmers in Britain, and hosted lots of events – mostly discussions and skill-sharing sessions – both in London, where we are based, and in rural natural spaces.

In the long run, we want to create a space and environment where people can learn skills like farming or agroforestry, and that can also serve as a place for rest, healing and community. This would be based on seeing land ownership as collective, rather than as rooted in the private, patriarchal family farm, which still dominates even the organic and agroecological growing movements.

Your website mentions land as a form of reparation. Can you expand on this?

Across the world, a very small percentage of the population owns land, so reparations in terms of resources is essential. But reparations also mean repair. Most BPOC in Britain grow up in urban spaces, so our connection to the land might be quite distant, especially since we’re not seen as, you know, typical campers or hikers. Last December, when a group called “Muslim Hikers” went for a walk in the Peak District National Park, their Facebook page was flooded with racist abuse. So we want to repair that, because we all belong to nature, and everyone has the right to it.

I've learned and changed so much since I started actively learning about the natural world. There are a lot of scientific studies showing how green and blue spaces are good for your mental health. Without dismissing the reasons that a person might be struggling, being in spaces where you're not surrounded by buildings or people can help give you room to navigate whatever you're struggling with as well.

Another side of repair means repairing the stories that we were told, the historical amnesia that is so deeply ingrained in colonizer countries. The history of empire is so embedded in the land in Britain, in all those country estates that are now seen as quaint tourist attractions, but in many cases were built with colonial wealth.

What’s the relationship between climate justice, food justice and what we might call racial justice in Britain and around the world?

Historically, a certain form of colonial capitalism has been based on an exploitative, extractive relationship with nature. Sugar plantations in Jamaica, for example, were the earliest examples of intensive agroindustry, and they massively degraded the soil. The agriculture and food industries are responsible for around a third of greenhouse gas emissions.

This system doesn’t produce good food or healthy diets. Food poverty is a big problem in Britain, and so many people are reliant on food banks. BPOC are most vulnerable to these issues, but they aren’t in positions to control the production or the decisions made about food. Food sovereignty means changing our relationship with food production, and that includes changing our relationship with the land.

You’re also involved with the Right To Roam campaign, could you explain what that is trying to accomplish?

Right To Roam is demanding the right to walk freely – and to do other things, like camp, swim, canoe – over a much greater portion of the land in England. Currently, only 8% of land is accessible to the public. We have been organizing what we call mass trespasses involving hundreds of people on private land as a form of political demonstration, to say, “We have the right to enjoy nature, we have the right to enjoy this beautiful space too.” Earlier this month, there was one in a forest belonging to the Duke of Somerset, for example.

My role specifically is to help build an inclusive movement, because there are a lot of barriers to accessing the countryside. Hiking, for instance, involves a lot of niche knowledge and can be expensive — good hiking boots cost over $125, and that’s if you know which kind to get. There’s the cost of travel too; train and bus services in rural areas are bad and overpriced.

What was the Kinder in Colour event last month?

Kinder Scout is a well-known mountain in the Peak District that was inaccessible to the public until the Peak District National Park, which was the first national park in the country, was founded in 1951. On April 24, 1932, several hundred hikers deliberately trespassed there as a form of protest. Five went to prison for several months, and four of those arrestees were Jewish. As is the case with BPOC today, right-wing notions of Englishness excluded Jewish people and their right to be in rural spaces.

We decided to mark the 90th anniversary of that event last month by highlighting the invisible barriers that still limit access to the countryside, even if the legal barriers no longer exist. So we held a BPOC-centered event where we met in a nearby field for speeches and rituals, then walked up the mountain together. People came in buses from London, Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield and Newcastle.

Something like that makes you aware of how often you just get used to not being around other people of color in certain spaces. The few times I've been in the countryside with other people of color around me, it's always felt energizing and healing, and kind of magical.