Episode 12. Dr Sheree Mack: Representation in Natural Spaces as a Path to Oneness
Hello and welcome to episode 12 of Prompted by Nature. How are you doing in this heat? I’ve been finding water in a spray bottle in the fridge to be working wonders for keeping me cool on these slightly worryingly hot days.
This week you are in for a treat as I’m releasing the conversation I had with the wonderful Dr. Sheree Mack a couple of weeks ago.
Sheree is the Project Coordinator for a Heritage Lottery Funded project where she works with Northumberland National Park Authority, Durham Wildlife Trust and the National Trust, to offer opportunities to BAME communities to spend time outdoors to develop and deepen their relationship with nature.
Sheree’s practice manifests through poetry, storytelling, image and the unfolding histories of black people. She engages audiences around black women’s voices and bodies, black feminism, ecology and memory and facilitates national and international creative workshops and retreats in the landscape, encouraging and supporting women on their journey of remembrance back to their authentic selves. She is currently writing a mixed-genre memoir around a black woman's body with/in Nature.
In this conversation, we discuss:
Her background and time as a teacher in inner city schools
Her desire to support and encourage BAME creatives in the North East and beyond
Her own connection with nature and her passion for sharing this with others
The inspiration behind her Earth Sea Love project and some news about her new podcast supporting this initiative
The importance of BAME visibility and representation in natural spaces and the marketing of nature-based brands as well as the need to motivate a new generation of black women leaders
The financial side of accessibility in nature
Land as holding trauma and associations with enslavement
Nature as a space of oneness
Trauma and grief as a manifestation of our disconnection with nature
Self-care as a revolutionary act
Love as the source of everything and the importance of being in nature in order to re-connect with this
Her first memory of nature
Her hopes for the future and what she would like to pass onto you
Sheree contacted me a couple of months ago and I jumped at the chance of having her on the podcast. We had had the conversation ‘booked in’ about a month before it happened and the week we spoke turned out to be a real tipping point in our history with the death George Floyd happening just a few days before and the Black Lives Matter campaign ramping up with protests and marches across the globe. The conversation then became all the more pertinent and important in discussing the link between social justice and environmental justice.
As a white person, this is a conversation to listen to and learn from, finding ways of supporting representation by following BAME voices in nature on social media and in real life. I took away a lot of learning and spent time reflecting on this conversation and my own part in doing this. One resource I would like to direct you to is the Climate Reframe list on www.climatereframe.co.uk When I was setting up this podcast, I knew that I wanted it to be a space of representation and inclusion and this list was hugely useful in finding a space which, in their words, ‘amplifies BAME voices in the UK environmental movement.’
You can find Sheree at www.earthsealove.com and on Instagram @earthsealove and also Sheree’s personal page www.livingwildstudios.com and on Instagram @shereemackwrites
As always, if you enjoy the interview, please give it a five-star rating and a positive review - it really does help to push these voices out there.
And you can find me over on my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk or on my instagram @prompted.by.nature
I now have just two more conversations to release for this series after which I’ll be taking a short break to speak with some new voices (at a slightly slower pace this time - releasing 14 interviews in the space of two months has been hard work…in the best possible way).
Remember to stay around until the end when I’ll be giving you a little insight to the meditation and writing prompt that follows this episode.
Enjoy the conversation and I’ll speak to you after!
