In the UK, ‘Black and Ethnic Minority’ communities are 60% less likely to be able to access green space and natural environments than their white counterparts (Natural England). 

Our collective is based in London, Britain, and works to reconnect Black and People of Colour to land, both in the city and in the countryside. Our work addresses the inequalities in access to land and food, and reimagines land stewardship towards climate and racial justice.

LION is a grassroots collective of Black and People of Colour getting land through reparations.

Reparations is for Black and People of Colour (BPOC) who have experienced or are descended from people who have experienced different forms of exploitation and extractivism under colonialism. These include, but are not limited to enslavement, forced labour, forced migration, resource extraction, and the legacy of these violences – all of which have transgenerational effects on a material, structural and spiritual level.

This is why LION’s understanding of reparations is holistic. Reparations is about the redistribution of resources to Black and People of colour. It is about creating spaces for BPOC to heal and repair intergenerational traumas. We believe that land is vital to this process, both as the return of what was taken from us and our ancestors, and as a way to rebuild ancestral ways of being in right relationship to the land. 

Reparations is also the remaking of the world (Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò) – a demand to disrupt the structural violence of racism and colonialism. Beyond industry representation and access, our work focuses on shifting power and resources towards BPOC healing on and with the land.

What are Reparations?

Anti-Capitalist

Radical Collective Care

Ancestral and Spiritual Wisdom

Holistic Reparations