Land Reparations and Ecological Justice: An Interview with Sam Siva

In this article and interview Sam Siva presents the work of the British Black and People of Colour collective, Land in Our Names (LION), unpacking the centrality of land reparations to any project of ecological reparation. LION’s work supports Black and People of Colour in reconnecting with land through food growing and claiming access to nature. Putting access to land at the centre of ecological justice is also about affirming the interconnectedness between ecological repair, healing and concrete reparations for damages done to people and non-humans through imperialism, colonialism and extractivism, as well as about understanding the centrality of racism to these enterprises and their persistent inheritances in the present. Together, this text and a follow-up conversation connecting the personal and the political, struggles and hopes, demonstrate the deep connection of exclusionary dynamics to contemporary concerns of justice at the heart of ecological reparation – such as climate change, the whiteness of the countryside, the rise of malnutrition and poor mental health.