Episode 59 - Nadeem Perera - Flock Together - Return to the Source of Love
“Y’know when you look at the outdoors and all the industries attached, that’s conservation, that’s bloody film making, that’s gardening, whatever you want to call it, we are underrepresented - because we are thought to be, quote on quote ‘urban people’ which is the most whack term, ever! Like I said, right at the beginning, I owe everything I have to London. The way it’s shaped me, the way it’s given me my mentality and all that. I am not born to be in the city, what the hell are you talking about? My DNA is made from two tropical islands, I am nature. And if you look historically for hundreds and probably thousands of years the way we’ve lived back home, we are informed with all the wisdom, all the knowledge we need to survive in the natural world. We are the experts in the field, but we’ve been excluded, so it’s about getting us back involved in those conversations and back in those situations and reclaim something that has always belonged to us.”
Nadeem Perera is a birder, wildlife TV presenter, activist, youth mentor and co-founder of Flock Together.
Flock Together is a birdwatching collective for people of colour who have felt unwelcome and marginalised in spaces that should be for everyone. Together they are reclaiming green spaces and rebuilding relationships with nature - one walk at a time. At twenty eight, Nadeem is more than his deep fascination with birds, his youth work, values and unique personal qualities are essential in the world today.
Join Dan and Nadeem discuss:
- Learnings from COP Glasgow: No one knows what they’re doing
- Nature is not something to be harnessed and controlled by the few, it’s a boundless source of love and abundance
- The beauty of life. One moment can be insignificant to one and highly significant to another
- Sliding into a bird spotter’s DM’s, to the creation of a birdwatching collective for people of colour, Flock Together
- Importance of challenging and dismantling preconceived ideas and stories
- What we can learn from the Golden Eagle. Be More Bird
- The power of a Green Woodpecker encounter
- Screw the school system. Understand who you are and what you like
- Who and what is an urban person?
- ‘We think we’re the driver, but we’re just the loudest passenger’
Community and Links
Nedeem Perera:
Needem Perera Insta - https://www.instagram.com/birdnerdeem
Flock Together - https://www.flocktogether.world
Flock Together Book - https://www.waterstones.com/book/9781856754781
Flock Together Insta - https://www.instagram.com/flocktogether.world
Flock Together Academy - https://www.flocktogether.world/latest/flock-together-is-for-the-children
People:
Ollie (Danger) Olanipekun - https://www.instagram.com/ollie_ranger
Community:
WWT - https://www.wwt.org.uk
Connect:
Twitter: @BecomingCrew
Web: https://www.thespaceship.earth/
Newsletter: https://becomingcrew.substack.com/
Email: hello@thespaceship.earth
Play Out Track:
Connie Converse - Talkin Like You (Two Tall Mountains)
https://music.apple.com/gb/album/talkin-like-you-two-tall-mountains/1493448255?i=1493448257
Thanks for listening to The Spaceship Earth Podcast.
Host: Dan Burgess @dan__burgess
Edit: Charlie Shread
Shownotes: Vicki Turner
Music: Escape Goat by Soren Lorenson
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