Happy Spring! Welcoming April :)
Springing into April
We hope you've all had a gentle start to the new year. The daffodils are blooming, the trees are starting to bud, and we're filled with excitement and looking forward to what's to come this year!
We've been spending a lot of time on immersive and deep systems work, learning conflict training skills, systems workshops, and looking at what non-hierarchical and capitalist organizing looks like in capitalist, hierarchical structures. As the cost of living crisis is rising, and the UK is even suffering from a tomato shortage (!!), we're more committed than ever to building structures that are more in tune with our planet, less dependent on financial structures, and more interdependent on each other.
It's already April and we've done a lot although at times it doesn't feel like much. We've been refining our systems and our policies and we are longing to get back on the land and connect with the more than human world. Skip down to the Jobs and Opportunities section of our email if you're a BPOC farmer who'd be interested in having the LION team visit you this Spring, Summer, Autumn.
We are proud to present "Jumping Fences - Land, Food, and Racial Justice in British Farming". The first phase of our Jumping Fences project, this extensive research report was undertaken by Naomi Terry on behalf of the Ecological Land Cooperative, Land In Our Names, and the Landworker's Alliance. Jumping Fences is led and steered by an all BPOC team of representatives from each organisation including our own Josina, Dee, and Sam. The report looks at the experiences of BPOC agricultural workers in Britain, especially people working in rural spaces. It's an honour to read about people paving the way in spaces where this may be difficult. You can read the full report on our website here.
Unsacrificed Terrains
At the end of January, Cultivating Justice - that is, LION, Farmerama, and OOTL, held a collaborative workshop with Mirrored Fatality at the wonderful Mosaic Rooms. Mirrored Fatality welcomed us to the space with an altar practice handed down to them from elders, and we continued the day with discussing what the promise of unsacrificed terrains could mean to us as people whose lands have been colonized.
Mirrored Fatality did an incredible punk performance, and we ended the whole day with a mural drawing which is proudly hanging in our office now. All donations went to support the Atlanta Forest Defend Fund, which you can read more about here.
Climate Justice & Accessibility
Made in collaboration with the Black Earth Collective based in Berlin, this zine contains interviews, art and essays by Black Disabled activists working in land and climate justice. What barriers are people facing and how can they be dismantled? Feel free to download and print it in A5 format on recycling paper. Edited by Abeni Asante (Black Earth) and Sam Siva (Land In Our Names). Read the zine on LION's website here.
LION MERCH!
We know we are very slow with shipping out orders so it might seem a bit silly to be promoting our merch, but your purchases support our work and go a long way! So please keep ordering our zines and t-shirts from our shop and we promise we will get better at shipping out your orders. Also we've recently uploaded an online version of TransPlants which you can read here.
Not only that, we have recently stocked Ione Maria-Rojas's Huahtli print which was featured in our TransPlants zine. Money made from sales of this print go directly to Puente a la Salud Comunitaria, a food sovereignty organisation based in Oaxaca, Mexico. Find out more information here.
Ecological Reparation OUT NOW!
Ecological Reparation - Repair, Remediation and Resurgence in Social and Environmental Conflict is now out and available to order from Bristol University Press. How do we engage with the threat of social and environmental degradation while creating and maintaining liveable and just worlds? The authors explore practices of repairing damaged ecologies across different locations and geographies and offer innovative insights for the conservation, mending, care and empowerment of human and nonhuman ecologies.
Ruralization Zine READ NOW!
How can we create thriving rural places for all? Is a zine created by Shared Assets, using inspiration from research undertaken through the Ruralization Project. The zine investigates three themes: access to land, reframing relationships with people and the land, and the liveability of rural places, questioning how alternative
practices could help to create a thriving, regenerative, and connected rural future.
JOBS & OPPORTUNITES
Granville Community Kitchen are looking for a Sunday Community Grower! Work with our favourite, Dee Woods as well as the rest of the fabulous Granville team. Deadline for applications: 12th April. Interview date: Wednesday 19th April. Find more information here.
LION Farm Visits - We want to visit your farm, especially if you're BPOC! Please email sam@landinournames.community if you'd be up for us popping by and volunteering for a day, or just visiting for a farm tour, we want to get back to the land and feel our fingers in the soil.
New Newsletter?
You might be wondering what has happened to our newsletter? It's not as colourful or clunky as it used to be. Well that's because we found an easier and free alternative to mailchimp with tinyletter here. We will be transitioning over to tinyletter so if you have any feedback on this new format please let us know.