The Collective
Land in Our Names is a small collective made up of passionate people with experience in food growing and land work, as well as activism and community organising.
Within our core collective, we are experimenting with sociocratic models where we work across different circles. Roles are fluid and shaped by the circles each member chooses to be a part of, with opportunities to share and learn skills across circles.
We also have long-term relationships with coordinators who work with us in specific circles, such as finances or our projects, Dandelion and Fallow.
We are also supported by an advisory board, who advise us on big decisions, such as land purchase, which funders to work with, how to be accountable to our community and on track with our strategic goals, providing diverse perspectives and supporting us to expand our networks of community, supporters, and funders.
CORE COLLECTIVE
Photo by Denisha Anderson
Marcus MacDonald
he/him
Marcus (he/him) is a passionate South London-based grower, community organiser, tour manager and cultural advocate with Jamaican, Indian, and British heritage. He has extensive experience navigating the intersection of food sovereignty, racial justice, land justice, music, and community organising. Marcus brings a unique perspective informed by his working-class queer background and commitment to preserving and celebrating diverse cultural histories.
marcus@landinournames.comunity
Summayah Zannath
Sumayyah is a writer, community organiser and creative facilitator. Sumayyah is interested in collectively reimagining what care and solidarity can look like between communities and land, particularly in urban environments. Sumayyah is also a researcher at Nejma Collective, an abolitionist group centred on Islamic principles. She is deeply rooted in food and land justice organising in her community in Tower Hamlets.
sumayyah@landinournames.comunity
they/them
Sam Siva
Sam is a Black and mixed (Black Jamaican, Sri Lankan) writer, grower and organiser. They are interested in liberation through healing and building resilient communities, and how access to land and nature are key to this. Sam often gives presentations, talks on podcasts and panels, facilitates workshops and writes or contributes to articles. They are passionate about building resilient and transformative systems, centring care and reparative justice in their work.
sam@landinournames.comunity
COORDINATORS
Naomi Terry
she/her
Naomi is our Dandelion Project Coordinator. She is a community food grower based in South London. She first began working with LION in 2023 as a researcher for the Jumping Fences Project, to investigate the experiences of global majority land workers in Britain. She now co-coordinates the Dandelion food growing project in Peckham. In addition to dandelion, Naomi currently works at Sutton Community Farm as the Head Grower, and as a member of the Soil Clinic collective. Her past work spans cultural dynamism within a global food system, relational approaches to unfolding crises, decolonial education and wildlife ecology in the UK, California and Botswana (bumblebees, botany, ungulates, plants and more).
Simin Wadiwala
she/her
Sim is our Finances Coordinator. She joined LION in August 2025, after meeting having met various members of LION through the Nourishing Economics network, which linked up BPOC working in the solidarity economy in the UK. In addition to being a carer, Sim is part of the housing coop movement, through Radical Routes - a UK network of coops for social change, where she has been a member of the Finance Group for 5 years, and is an associate trustee with Friends Provident Foundation - a charitable foundation for economic systems change. At LION, Sim is responsible for processing invoices, supporting the accountants with payroll, pensions and accounts, and supporting the team with cashflow and financial policies.
she/her/we
Dre Ferdinand
Dre Ferdinand is our Fallow Project Coordinator. She is a licensed social worker, artist and therapist, whose practices include movement, energy, sound, soil, and EMDR, a modality that has informed her approach which she refers to as ‘MESSE’. Dre’s practice framework is rooted in healing, social and restorative justice. Her professional journey involves aiding individuals and communities in processing and recovering from systemic harm and trauma as well as advocating for therapeutic support for social workers. Her teachings are centred on helping people navigate their internal landscape, collective care, and processing trauma.
Yoni Carnice
Yoni is our Dandelion Project Coordinator.
ADVISORY BOARD
Photo by Christian Cassiel
Claire Ratinon
she/they
Claire Ratinon is a food grower, writer and worker organiser with Solidarity Across Land Trades (SALT). Claire has been growing food for over a decade and has shared her journey in talks for organisations including Tate, the Barbican Centre and Royal Botanical Garden, Edinburgh, as well as on Radio 4, at the Hay Literary Festival and in her fortnightly column for the Guardian’s Saturday Magazine. She co-wrote the pamphlet, ‘Horticultural Appropriation’ with artist Sam Ayre and is the author of the book, ‘Unearthed’.
Nonhlanhla Makuyana
they/them
Nonhlanhla Makuyana is a Zimbabwean-born, UK-based community economist, educator, and community organiser. They are a co-director at Decolonising Economics, where they work to cultivate a Black and People of Colour-led solidarity economy movement. Nonhlanhla’s research focuses on past, present, and future Afrikan and Afro-diasporic economies rooted in liberation. They are the curator of Medicine: Lessons in Black Economic Interdependence, an oral history archival project exploring how the African oral tradition can help communicate the relationships, tools, and skills essential to historic and contemporary movements for Black British economic self-determination.
Their work aims to make community economics accessible to marginalised communities and, through political education, to shift resources, wealth, and power to transform local economies.
she/they
Dee Woods
Dee Woods is the inaugural member of our advisory board. She is an award-winning food system leader – a passionate knowledge broker, pollinator and weaver who advocates for good food for all and a just food system. Her work meets at the nexus of human rights, food sovereignty, agroecology, community, policy, decolonial research, culture, climate and social justice.
PAST MEMBERS
Josina Calliste, co-founder, 2019 - 2026
Jamila Versi, 2022 - 2025
Laurèl Hadleigh, founding member, 2019 - 2021
Ọlá Ayòrindé, co-founder, 2019 - 2020