Talk at Bath Spa University, College of Liberal Arts

On the 8th May 2017, I went right from school to speak at Bath Spa University at their College of Liberal Arts, at the end of their Nature and Wellbeing Conference. I talked about Camp Avalon, my Race Equality in Nature Conference and about Black2Nature.

It was really interesting to give a talk to academics who had been talking about the connection of nature with wellbeing but probably from a completely white perspective. Though Dr Samantha Walton who had organised the conference had been talking to us at Black2Nature about the issues and I spoke at a mini-festival called Landscape and Change organised by her in Bristol, so hopefully she had been able to share some of my ideas already.

There were plenty of questions and interest in what I was talking about and I really felt that my talk triggered a real "lightbulb moment" amongst the people listening. There was also time to talk afterwards, which was also really interesting. It was fascinating to talk to Philippa Forsey from Creativity Works in Radstock near Bath, close to where we live. She had met Mum loads of times in her work to do with mental health and had heard Mum mention me (as well as one of her colleagues who had done a serious of creative writing sessions with me and my class at primary school) but thought she was just a proud mum and came over to say how amazing she thought I was and it was lovely that she knew mum too.

Stephen Moss was a lecturer within this department, but was away in Peru, it was a shame not to meet him again. The event really inspired me to get writing even more, so you never know, you might see a book from me one day!

Thanks to Dr Samantha Walton for organising the event and inviting me to speak.

About the Author

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig in Antarctica
Photograph copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Mya-Rose Craig is a 15-year-old young British Bangladeshi birder, naturalist, conservationist, environmentalist, activist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol and writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about birding and conservation from around the world. She loved seeing Mountain Gorillas in East Africa and Penguins in Antarctica over Christmas 2015, her 7th continent.

Mya-Rose was a Bristol European Green Capital Ambassador along with Kevin McCloud, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tony Juniper, Simon King, Miranda Krestovnikoff and Shaun the Sheep! See the full list of Bristol Ambassadors. She has also been listed with the singer-songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones as one of Bristol's most influential young people. She is an Ambassador for World Shorebirds Day, See It Her Way and a Charter Champion for The Charter for Woods, Trees and People. She organised a conference, Race Equality in Nature, in June 2016 aiming to increase the ethnic diversity in nature and plans to run her third Camp Avalon camp in 2017. She has also set up Black2Nature with the aim of working with organisations to increase the access to nature of Black Asian Minority Ethnic people. Please connect with her on LinkedIn (Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig) so that she can invite you to join the Race Equality in Nature LinkedIn Group and be part of the change. She has been awarded the Bath and West Show Environmental Youth Award 2017 for Bristol for her Black2Nature work EYA 2017. Please also like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter.