Winter Goodbyes
LION's closing down for a couple of weeks. We wish you all restful holidays and look forward to seeing you in the new year!
As LION closes for a few weeks this winter, we wish you all a deeply restorative pause—a chance to slow down, breathe, and, like the land, enter a necessary period of rest. Fallow seasons allow us to emerge renewed in the spring; we invite our community to embrace this slowing as the days grow shorter.
It has been a difficult year for the world. Israel’s relentless assault on Gaza has entered its second year, and while we watch in horror, people in our own communities have faced repression for speaking out. Our dear friends and comrades currently held in British prisons are now on day 48 of hunger strike, fatigued and weakened yet steadfast in their demand for basic rights—including the right to a fair trial. (Members of the Filton 24 have spent over a year in custody.)
Across the globe, climate catastrophe continues to reshape lives: in the Caribbean communities are still rebuilding after Hurricane Melissa; devastating floods tore through homes in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka; and this year is projected to be the second or third hottest ever recorded. Meanwhile, Sudan once again tops the IRC’s list of the worst humanitarian crises, with war displacing over 12 million people and famine deepening.
As we sit with these realities—born of extraction, greed, land ownership, and capitalism—LION continues its mission: to build local organising power and to create pathways for Black people and people of colour to belong to the land in the place we call home.
Dreaming Our Land - Land Visualisations
At the end of last month, we hosted an event to present our business plan and land visualisation of our land project. It has been a joy to work on this, and we’re deeply grateful to Hannah Padgett for transforming our sprawling dreams into a compelling document.
Community members and funders joined us as we outlined our financial aims and walked through our vision for the land—mapped into pillars, workstreams, and methodology.
Our business plan has now been shared with aligned organisations and individuals for reflection and feedback. As it evolves, we will continue bringing it into community spaces for collective shaping.
We were nourished by incredible Trinidadian food from Sweet Hands Catering and live music from the brilliant band Calilope. Javie from Migrants in Culture—who created our beautiful visualisation—was sketching away, visual notetaking for the event (which we can’t wait to share once it’s complete).
Ways of Being, Doing and Knowing
LION has begun a powerful learning process under the guidance of Jasber Singh. Together we are exploring decolonial ways of being, doing, and knowing—unlearning patterns of power and privilege, and examining how they show up in our organising.
Across two immersive sessions, we have faced challenging questions, played, connected, using Theatre of the Oppressed techniques to make visible what is often hard to articulate. This work will continue into the new year.
Goodbye to Jamila!
That’s the last newsletter you’re getting from me! With much love to LION always, I have decided to step in a different direction for now.
It’s been such a privilege to be a part of such an ambitious collective. LION has shifted significantly during my time here - we’ve developed new policies such as wellbeing & access and our conflict policy. Over the past few years, we’ve really honed in our land strategy, and I’m so glad I got to be a part of presenting what has felt like my little baby with the business plan before I depart.
It’s been an honour to meet lots of you at different events and I look forward to continuing to bump into you all and building our connections in other ways!
Jamila x
Ways to Support
Sri Lanka Flood Relief
Visions Global Empowerment Sri Lanka
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Support So Far:
325 non-food relief packs worth Rs. 20,47,500/- (each pack valued at Rs. 6,300) to families distributed in Kandy.
100 mosquito nets worth of Rs.150,000/- (each costing Rs.1500) has been distributed to Delft Island in Jaffna.
We are preparing another lorry with (under garments for women, mosquito nets, bed sheets, towels, lungi, sanitary napkins, school bags, notebooks, shoes, soap, etc) to Kandy Estate areas.
If you find yourself willing to support, kindly use the account number below:
Account Name: Visions Global Empowerment
Account Number (Current Account): 285100140051046
Bank Name: People’s Bank
Branch Name: PointPedro
Branch Code: 285
Swift Code: PSBKLKLX
Hurricane Melissa Fundraisers
Helping Pregnant People, Mothers & Children
Solidarity Yaad Community Climate Space for Women, LGBTQ+ Folks and Elders
Send Money to the Village of Dundee Pen
Emergency Relief for Trans and Gender Non Confirming Folks
“Ele Elna Elak is a volunteer-driven initiative dedicated to supporting Palestinian families in need. Since 2018, we’ve worked to provide food, clothing, and essentials. We are a campaign rooted in the profound belief that “What we own, you own…” (Ele Elna Elak). This Arabic phrase symbolizes our commitment to social solidarity and the importance of sharing resources to uplift our community.”
Support Sudanese Refugees & Displaced Families
“Name is Sadeia Ali I am the founder of saving Alginina initiative we are working to help refugees and displaced families with medical help, meals, education
we distribute the funds for securing meals for more than 10 thousand families in different cities around Sudan and more than 60 thousands families of Sudanese refugees in Chad also providing medical care and psychiatric services to them”
Support Prisoners for Palestine
“We put specific calls to action on our social media so keep an eye out for them, but there are many other ways you can show solidarity with Prisoners for Palestine. Getting some friends or comrades together to organise autonomous actions is a great way to get involved and support the prisoners.
This helps to grow awareness and fosters a stronger and more decentralised movement, as well as giving the prisoners a great morale boost. We are all connected through the prison walls as part of the international resistance, with one aim – the liberation of Palestine. The prisoners are the centre of our struggle, and show us that state repression cannot stop us from acting for truth, justice and freedom.”
Click here for Actions you can take