Black2Nature

My name is Donald Matheson. I’m 21 and I’m a filmmaker and storyteller of Kenyan and Scottish descent.

As a person of colour in the UK who grew up in relatively rural and green areas it’s a been a bit disheartening to see so few people “who look like me” at recent Climate Change and environmental rallies. Climate change is everyone’s problem, and yet not everyone in our society seems to care.

But taking it back a step, does the onus actually belong on us as people of colour for not showing as much of an interest?

With over 90% of BAME people in the UK living in urban environments and only 59% of people in the BME community (compared to 80% of the population as a whole) agreeing that Scotland’s wildlife makes an important contribution to the economy, it is clear much of our community haven’t had the opportunity to build a meaningful relationships with the main parts of our environment being destroyed by Climate Change.

Well, as someone’s who’s learned to love nature through living rurally and having the chance to go camping, outdoor swimming and mountain biking, I strongly believe we need to start by making the very thing we are trying to save more accessible to all.