Flock Together: Outsiders: Reclaim your place in nature

by Nadeem Perera

AS SEEN ON BBC ONE'S THE ONE SHOW

'Nature is a universal resource. For too long Black, Brown and people of colour have felt unwelcome and marginalised in spaces that should be for everyone.' -Flock Together

Nature is a powerful source of creativity, inspiration and healing; however, it has not always felt like a safe space for people of colour. Flock Together is here to change that, by inspiring everyone, regardless of race, religion or economic status, to build their relationship with the outdoors and embrace all that nature has to offer.

Founded by Ollie Olanipekun and Nadeem Perera in summer 2020, Flock Together is the UK's first birdwatching collective for people of colour. Ollie and Nadeem share a mutual love of nature - it is their outlet when faced with neglect and prejudice, it is a place for deep thought and discovery, and it is the foundation on which their friendship and community is built.

Part memoir, part manifesto, Outsiders is Flock Together's call-to-action. Divided into six parts, each chapter focuses on a key pillar in the Flock's

1. Make Nature a Must explores the contrast between urban and rural lifestyles. How does the urban environment disconnect the individual from nature? How is nature beneficial to us all?

2. Challenging Preconceptions shows the complexities people of colour face when they are stereotyped. How can we change these preconceptions?

3. Nature as My Healer assesses the systemic issues impacting the mental health of people of colour. How can nature help mitigate this?

4. Building a Community offers guidance to building your own community. How can a community bring systemic change?

5. Who Runs Nature? outlines what we can do to benefit nature. How do communities around the world cooperate with the ecosystem and how can this be introduced more to the western world?

6. Creative Mentorship looks at the obstacles young people of colour face when shut out of particular spaces. How does mentorship help reclaim those spaces?

Genres: Nonfiction

208 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 14, 2022

Reviews

[Mara Facon]

super inspirational and refreshing to read about the success of a collective like this!

[Ella · Rating 5 out of 5]

guide to creating community, spaces, and longevity 🫡

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

#Netgalley #Iconbooks

Nadeem Perera and Ollie Olanipekun have masterminded a grassroots movement with enormous potential to bring communities together across intergenerational groups. I am in awe at the wonderful waves their Flock Together movement 'pebble' is creating. They are regulars on the BBC One show and Autumnwatch.

This book explores how they came to meet, the setting up and running of a group to encourage more people outdoors, specifically POC. They speak of how out of place POC can feel in these predominantly white areas of natural beauty. This makes me so angry. Nature is a beautiful free resource that everyone should be able to access without feeling they don't belong. It broke my heart when an incident is recounted where a school friend states nature is not for us.

This is where the book comes into its strength as both men explore what nature/outdoors means to them, their urban upbringing, school life, entrenched racism, and their means to escape that and take others with them. They emphatically acknowledge the important role that the natural world has on their mental state, self-esteem, self-worth and confidence. It's an exciting time for this movement to crest now. On the back of the pandemic, where so many people are isolated and stuck, this proffers an opportunity to engage with others and build our communities into something that represents us all.
I can see so much potential for this, such as Surfers Against Sewage plastic-free communities, the Right to Roam campaign or Incredible Edible community groups. People leading the way in their own community.
This should be in all schools and taught in the curriculum. It should be brought into policy for fair access for all.

[Lois · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Outsiders: The Outside is Yours, Ollie Olanipekun and Nadeem Perera examine how racialised marginalisation has kept people of colour isolated from nature. They look at why outdoor industries are lacking in diverse racial representation and dispel the heavily internalised myth, within some ethnic communities, that these spaces are only for white people. They candidly address the ways in which people of colour have been coerced by the demands of capitalism to remain in concrete, urbanised parts of Britain, removed from the transformative and healing benefits that nature brings. Outsiders reads like a friendly, casual conversation, but it is a rousing call-to-action, encouraging more and more people of colour to reconnect with the great outdoors.


Full review can be read here - https://www.lovereading.co.uk/book/97...

[Pleuni Booksta-Booktok · Rating 2 out of 5]

⭐️2.5

‘In de natuur hoeft niemand een rondje te geven, niemand hoeft in de rij te staan, niemand zal op je neerkijken als je werkloos bent en je hoeft je NOOIT beter voor te doen, want je bent goed zoals je bent.’

Dit boek gaat over Nadeem en Ollie die ontdekken wie ze zijn, ze nemen je mee in hun reis door het leven.
Echter had ik gehoopt dat het boek meer gericht zou zijn op de community building en het vogelen an sich, dit had van mij veel meer benoemd mogen worden!
Hoe kun je bijvoorbeeld meer gelijkgestemden vinden bij jou in de buurt?
De tips en stukjes tussendoor waren daarentegen leuk om te lezen.

[Sherbourne Valley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to play a small part in a project (as part of city of culture) which involved a walk over with Flock Together at Coventry Charterhouse – I later received this book as a very welcome Christmas gift. ‘Outsiders’ is a fantastic celebration of British Nature, the benefits it can bring to people and the vital importance of making our wild places accessible and inviting for everyone. As the authors describe it – ‘ outsiders is a memoir and manifesto about the power of nature to heal, inspire and unite us in the face of prejudice and inequality’. Alex

[Crunchy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it.