Ujima Radio’s “Green and Black Initiative” came together in 2015 in response to Bristol’s year as the Green Capital of Europe. Though the city was buzzing with environmental and sustainability themed events, Bristol missed out on a big opportunity to connect with Caribbean and African communities through the common theme of nature. Throughout the European Green Capital year, the radio station hosted The Green and Black Conversations which sparked a wider interest in the ideas coming from communities that are not usually represented on the green scene.
At the end of the year, Ujima 98FM’s Director Roger Griffith wrote The Green And Black Report to “give background and context to some of the issues faced by the Green and Environmental agenda” in working with Black, Asian and other Ethnic Minority Bristolians.
The project was a collaboration between Ujima 98fm, The Cabot Institute at the University of Bristol (UoB), the Bristol Green Capital Partnership and Up Our Street.
Here’s a list of some of the things we got up to. A report of our time as Green and Black Ambassadors is at the end of this document.
Diverse Natures
In December 2016 and January 2017, we facilitated a group of activities with the World Wildlife Trust’s Slimbridge Wetland Centre in Gloucestershire, involving BAME Bristolians and their ideas on nature and conservation spaces. This included two trips to Slimbridge and a workshop held at St Werburgh’s City Farm in inner east Bristol. Even though it was a cold January morning, 14 people aged 28–52 took part in a day of discussion and activities on memories of ‘being in nature’, likes and dislikes, and barriers to engaging with the environment and nature. We called the activities “Diverse Natures”:
Diverse Natures – WWT Slimbridge & Ujima Radio from Firstborn Studios on Vimeo.
Photovoice
Our early research backed up evidence from the 2015 Green & Black conversations that the pervading perception that BAME Bristolians did not participate in ‘green’ activities was not true. In fact, many people had lived very ‘green’ lives for a long time and saw it as second nature. The issue was not that people were not engaged, rather that the mainstream environmental sustainability community had not sufficiently understood who the city’s diverse communities are and what they do
Learn more about Photovoice in the report below
Common Cause
We were involved in the Common Cause research which was a collation project by the Arts Council which brought together research that has used the arts in conjunction with social sciences:
