Watch me tonight in this amazing short film, talking about the Islamaphobic bullying I get on social media.
Fantastic to be in the film with Munroe Bergdorf, the Black transgender model recently sacked by L’Oreal for her honest views on racism and white privilege, following the white supremacist attacks in Charlottesville.
Completely agree with her view that you either stand up against racism or you are with it. Watch and find out what it feels like.
It was strange watching the preview of the film on a big screen at the British Film Institute at Southbank, London. Will be on BBC I-Player afterwards.
Silent Roars’ airing at 10.25 pm on BBC Four Sunday 24th Oct, as part of ‘Listen to Britain’.
Four of the internet’s biggest female stars reveal how their followers are shaping them. Starring Mya-Rose Craig, Ella Grace Denton, Munroe Bergdorf, Elizabeth Farrell.
Produced by Maia Krall Fry, BBC, BFI, Wingspan Productions.
Hi, I’m Dr. Mya-Rose Craig. I am a 19-year-old prominent British-Bangladeshi ornithologist, environmentalist, diversity activist as well as an author, speaker and broadcaster. At age 11 I started the popular blog Birdgirl, and at age 17 I became the youngest person to see half of the birds in the world.
Lyrical, poignant and insightful.’ - Margaret Atwood
This is my story; a journey defined by my love for these extraordinary creatures. Because large or small, brown, patterned or jewelled, there is something about birds that makes us, even for just moments at a time, lift our eyes away from our lives and up to the skies.
Lyrical, poignant and insightful.’ - Margaret Atwood
This is my story; a journey defined by my love for these extraordinary creatures. Because large or small, brown, patterned or jewelled, there is something about birds that makes us, even for just moments at a time, lift our eyes away from our lives and up to the skies.
Today we saw millions of people march in the USA, London and across the world in #WomensMarch to protest again Donald Trump bring the 45th President of the USA due to his disgusting, derogatory and dehumanising comments against women and his racism.
This is a day that shows that women will fight back against sexism and I felt it was a good day to re-post my two blog posts about sexism in birding, nature and conservation.
The posts are from Nov 2015 and Jan 2016, but nothing has really changed since the time I wrote the blog posts, except I have organised another Camp Avalon for young birders and Minority ethnic teenagers, a conference about getting Minority Ethnic people into nature called Race Equality and set up Black2Nature.
Person by person, let’s change this world of objectification and misogyny.
Thank you.
Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig
About The Author
Hi, I’m Dr. Mya-Rose Craig. I am a 19-year-old prominent British-Bangladeshi ornithologist, environmentalist, diversity activist as well as an author, speaker and broadcaster. At age 11 I started the popular blog Birdgirl, and at age 17 I became the youngest person to see half of the birds in the world.
Lyrical, poignant and insightful.’ - Margaret Atwood
This is my story; a journey defined by my love for these extraordinary creatures. Because large or small, brown, patterned or jewelled, there is something about birds that makes us, even for just moments at a time, lift our eyes away from our lives and up to the skies.
Lyrical, poignant and insightful.’ - Margaret Atwood
This is my story; a journey defined by my love for these extraordinary creatures. Because large or small, brown, patterned or jewelled, there is something about birds that makes us, even for just moments at a time, lift our eyes away from our lives and up to the skies.
On 3 June 2016 I organised a conference at Bristol Zoo called Race Equality in Nature which was sponsored by Bristol Zoo Gardens, The Wildlife Trusts, WWT, Swarovski Optik, Opticron, AFON, Bristol Multi-Faith Forum (BMFF), Imayla, CASS and Brian Eversham. I am very grateful to all the sponsors and those who helped, without whom I could not have arranged the conference.
Bill Oddie and Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig
Stephen Moss
Panel
The speakers were, including myself opening, Bill Oddie, Kerry McCarthy (Environment Secretary at the time), Stephen Moss (broadcaster), Dr Richard Benwell (WWT), Jini Reddy (naturalist) & Experts in Race Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Monira Ahmed Chowdhury (CASS), Lily Khandker (BMFF), & Rachel De Garang. The speakers had a wide range of expertise to contribute.
The conference considered why there is inequality in access to nature by Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) people by first identifying the barriers to BAME people accessing nature and secondly identifying who these barriers can be overcome, with a special additional focus on role models.
85 people attended the conference from a diverse range of backgrounds including many of the nature charities, BBC NHU, Media, Universities, National Trust, Heritage Lottery Fund, BAME people, and those working with BAME communities such as housing, education and mental and physical health. It was the first time that so many people from such varied backgrounds and professions had got together to talk through the issues, with BAME led lively and honest discussions in workshops.
Introduction The conference came from the starting point that there is an inequality of access by BAME people to nature and that this was in addition to the effects of inner-city deprivation, as concluded in the February 2016 Natural England Report. It then considered how and why there are these inequalities by identifying the barriers to BAME people accessing nature, how these barriers can be overcome, with a special additional focus on role models.
Action The biggest challenge following the conference is how to make a change? It was agreed, amongst other things:
To set up a group, which has been set up in LinkedIn, Race Equality in Nature
Ask universities, AFON/NGB, etc to identify BAME people studying nature subjects and members
To set up a Whatsapp group of BAME naturalists, for mentoring & support
To chose a snazzy project name (Black2Nature) and obtain funding
To recruit an employee with expertise in race equality, diversity and inclusion and ideally nature to collaborate with nature charities & media, schools and universities, etc
Where possible, initiatives are BAME led
To promote the project with BAME led articles and workshops
Nature TV needs to meet commissioners quotas (see Linkedin Group “The ‘D’ Word”)
Nature NGO’s to prioritise recruiting BAME people for HR, Marketing & Finance roles
Objectives Seeking equal access to nature for BAME people is a valid and justifiable aim. Due to nature organizations being almost all white, there was an ingrained lack of understanding of BAME communities and at times arrogance about this missing knowledge which acts as a hindrance. For this reason, projects need to be BAME led where possible, which can happen through collaboration.
Many barriers are within the BAME communities with those working within them having a lack of expertise in engaging people with nature. Hence, the need for collaboration with nature NGOs.
Nature charities/media need to engage in the project from the highest levels so that all staff can be trained and bought in. For example, preventing staff from stating unhelpful things, such as that the organisation is colourblind (we all see colour and so the playing field needs to be levelled to compensate for stereotypes).
It is important to involve political policymakers to highlight local/central funding needed
Role Models In terms of role models for BAME people, we agreed that it was important to nurture young BAME naturalists as soon they show interest because support is needed from the earliest opportunity to help them overcome barriers.
BAME mentors and champions are needed, be trained on the issues, to give a tailored scheme. Those from other professions can support with general careers advice, internships/volunteering, isolation, lack of family understanding, racism and prejudice.
Schools/universities need to encourage and educate BAME teenagers and their parents to choose degrees in biological sciences to gain interest in careers in nature and conservation.
The Natural Environment White Paper (2011) sets out the Government’s ambition to strengthen connections between people and nature, and in particular ‘for every child to be able to experience and learn in the natural environment’. The White Paper acknowledges that the “opportunities to benefit from spending time in natural environments are currently not open to everyone”, which can contribute to health and other inequalities.
The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) Select Committee inquiry into the Natural Environment White Paper called for DEFRA to set a target to increase public engagement with nature and for the Department for Health (DoH) and the Department for Education (DoE) to define measurements which demonstrate how greater public engagement with nature delivers gains in public health and education.
So Natural England in partnership with DEFRA, Public Health England, Historic England (previously English Heritage) and King’s College London launched a 2-year pilot to develop a national indicator for children’s access to the natural environment. This led to the February 2016 report, confirming with statistics what was concluded before. The results highlighted “clear social inequalities in how children are accessing natural environments, with both their ethnicity and socio-economic status having a detrimental impact”.
About The Author
Hi, I’m Dr. Mya-Rose Craig. I am a 19-year-old prominent British-Bangladeshi ornithologist, environmentalist, diversity activist as well as an author, speaker and broadcaster. At age 11 I started the popular blog Birdgirl, and at age 17 I became the youngest person to see half of the birds in the world.
Lyrical, poignant and insightful.’ - Margaret Atwood
This is my story; a journey defined by my love for these extraordinary creatures. Because large or small, brown, patterned or jewelled, there is something about birds that makes us, even for just moments at a time, lift our eyes away from our lives and up to the skies.
Lyrical, poignant and insightful.’ - Margaret Atwood
This is my story; a journey defined by my love for these extraordinary creatures. Because large or small, brown, patterned or jewelled, there is something about birds that makes us, even for just moments at a time, lift our eyes away from our lives and up to the skies.
