Talia Randall talks to the nature-loving pioneers who are smashing down the barriers–visible and invisible–that keep so many of us locked out of green space. From a park in Glasgow, to a beach in Cornwall and a Traveller site by an A road in London.
Nature can help us work out who we are. Take Ione, a British-Mexican land worker who finally understood what it meant to have a mixed identity when she saw a Mexican plant growing in English soil. As a kid, Talia broke into the nature reserve on her council estate. Some call this trespassing, others call it playing out. Which children are allowed to play in nature freely and which kids are seen as a threat? Now that Talia isn’t that kid anymore, she reflects on her own relationship to nature, has it changed as her class has?
Talia Randall talks to the nature-loving pioneers who are smashing down the barriers–visible and invisible–that keep so many of us locked out of green space. From a park in Glasgow, to a beach in Cornwall and a Traveller site by an A road in London.
Nature can help us work out who we are. Take Ione, a British-Mexican land worker who finally understood what it meant to have a mixed identity when she saw a Mexican plant growing in English soil. As a kid, Talia broke into the nature reserve on her council estate. Some call this trespassing, others call it playing out. Which children are allowed to play in nature freely and which kids are seen as a threat? Now that Talia isn’t that kid anymore, she reflects on her own relationship to nature, has it changed as her class has?
Does the violent history of the English countryside fuel a sense of who does and who doesn't feel as if they belong in rural England? And what can be done to make everyone feel more welcome? Talia Randall meets three people who are reclaiming their right to belong in rural England. Louisa Adoja Parker raised her children in Dorset. For years she felt her face didn’t fit in the landscape. Uncovering the hidden history of 18th century black people who walked on her local beach has helped her feel at home.
Manchester lass Anita Sethi is asserting the rights of ordinary people to go for a walk in the countryside. Her epic journey across the backbone of Britain follows in the footsteps of the working class ramblers who trespassed on privately-owned land in the 1930s.
And the founder of ‘Black Girl’s Hike’, Rhiane Fatinikun is celebrating black joy in nature and creating new nature traditions so that in the future there will be no barriers to being outdoors.
Produced, Written and Presented by Talia Randall Researcher: Erica McKoy Contributors: Rhiane Fatinikun, Anita Sethi, Louise Adjoa Parker Production Mentor: Anna Buckley Tech Producer: Gayl Gordon Executive Producers: Khaliq Meer & Leanne Alie Commissioned for BBC Sounds Audio Lab by Khaliq Meer Artwork by: Mike Massaro