Flock Together
What is it: A birdwatching collective for people of colour started in London by Ollie Olanipekun and Nadeem Perera (who met each other on Instagram over their shared love of birdwatching). From its first walk on Walthamstow Wetlands last year, Flock Together now has chapters worldwide, including in Toronto, New York, Milan and Paris.
Why you’ll love it: Join one of the monthly birdwatching walks — don’t worry, no experience is needed and beginners, as well as experienced birdwatchers, are very much welcome. So that no one is left out, Flock Together has developed brand partnerships, with binoculars and equipment donated. Although the walks are built around how to spot birds and what they are when you do — is that a jay, a wood pigeon, a robin? — they also build a supportive community, that understands the circumstances that might have brought you here.
What you need to know: New initiative Flock Together Academy makes sure kids get into nature, start to see the birds around them, and begin to understand ecological issues. Nature has been shown to have huge benefits to our kids — a year of being glued to Zoom classrooms and disconnected from the outdoors has been a desperately sad indicator of this. These classes in green spaces make nature visible, accessible, and vital again to young minds ready to learn outside the classroom what’s really important.
How to bring this into your life: Interested in the mission of Flock Together? Reach out to them to open a chapter wherever you are.
Why it matters: Think birdwatching and what’s the image that comes to mind? Maybe the media painted picture of a middle-aged khaki-wearing white man sat with their triangle sandwiches in a bird hide deep in the English countryside. That’s the history and that’s the misrepresentation problem, right there. Flock Together began during both lockdown – when the connection between nature and mental health became clearer — and the Black Lives Matter movement when who had access and who didn’t to this form of support also became more apparent. Similarly, birdwatching hasn’t been equitable, or diverse. This became acutely known when a white dog walker called the police on a black birdwatcher Chris Cooper in Central Park. Also, birdwatching hasn’t exactly been cool, but Flock Together is shifting that too. And those mental health benefits, Olanipekun and Perera are building this into their mission developing therapeutic sessions for participants.
In their own words: “Nature is a universal resource. For too long black, brown and POC have felt unwelcome and marginalised in spaces that should be for everyone. Together we are reclaiming green spaces and rebuilding our relationship with nature — one walk at a time.”
Something to do: We’re very new to noticing the birds around us. During the lockdown, we learned to identify the birds in our garden for the first time. And though we learned their rhythms, their colours and their songs, we also learned that we play a role in looking after them. Read this post from Flock Together, which shows us all how to take care of our feathered friends: by feeding them, cultivating wildflowers, putting out water, and looking after the insects — the birds need them too.
Lead photo credit: Zaineb Abelque
