Empowering Ethnic Minorities’ voices in National Parks residentials ends at Peak District National Park

As part of efforts to understand how people from minoritised communities can contribute ideas to help to re-imagine the future trajectory of English national parks, SEM successfully organised and delivered four residential weekends from May – June 2026 at the Hollowford Educational Centre, Peak District National Park and, one other residential weekend at the Sil, Northumberland National Park, October 2025.

In total, 121 participants, both young and old were involved, with participants sharing experiences about national parks and why they think these spaces are important to them for psychological, emotional, mental and, physical wellbeing, but also, as spaces to learn about the cultural history of the English landscape.

Dr Maxwell Ayamba BEM, SEM’s CEO explained that funding from Awards for All enabled SEM to successfully organise and deliver the residential weekends, capturing very important data. He noted that, created through the National Parks and Access to Countryside Act 1949 as part of the post-war reforms, national parks continue to serve as spaces for people to visit for leisure and recreation, but above all, offering therapeutic health benefits where people from cities such as Sheffield had the right to access nature.

However, as Dr Ayamba noted, although a national park such as the Peak District National Park is only about 15 minutes away from Sheffield by public transport, it remains out of reach for some people, attributing this to a number of factors.

He added that SEM was also delighted to partner with the Campaign for National Parks (CNP) on its National Parks Reimagined project which aims to support the CNP’s ambition to enable landscape recovery, involving a diverse range of people in National Parks, create intergenerational leadership that would drive radical transformation in ambition, action, management and policy. Dr Ayamba quoted the CNP as saying, “National Parks Reimagined will bring together citizens and stakeholders to create, negotiate and build new pathways to the future, informing changes in policy to secure landscape transformation where people and nature can thrive”.​

Participants Reponses

Jamia Masjid Ghousua Girls Group talk about their residential experiences

SEM’s CEO, Dr Maxwell Ayamba BEM, has been invited to attend screening of the film “Forever is Now”, a climate documentary showcasing the perilous climate crisis facing humanity.

The exciting new climate documentary Forever is Now will have its international premiere at Sheffield DocFest!

“As public enthusiasm for climate action fades across Europe, Irish Green Party leader Eamon Ryan refuses to step back, whatever the personal and political cost.”

Less than two weeks left to get your tickets: https://www.sheffdocfest.com/film/forever-now
Friday, June 12 — 8:45 PM
Showroom – Screen 3
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Eamon Ryan and director Neasa Ní Chianáin.

A Soilsiú Films production and Clin d’Oeil Films and Docmakers coproduction”.

Our CEO and founder Dr. Maxwell A. Ayamba spoke to radio presenter Paulette Edwards at BBC Radio Sheffield on 17 April 2026.

The interview was on the 75th anniversary celebrations to mark the creation of the Peak District National Park.

You can listen to interview on BBC iPlayer.

Our Founder/CEO, Dr Maxwell A. Ayamba was honoured to present his research paper at the British Sociological Association Annual Conference 2026 which took place 8th to Friday 10th April 2026 at the University of Manchester.

The theme of the 2026 conference was ‘75 Years of Sociology’ attended by researchers, academics from all over the world and 11 renowned publishers including SAGE Publishers, Routledge & Taylor Francis Group, Policy Press and Palgrave Macmillan.

Over the past seven and a half decades, the BSA has played a central role in advancing scholarship, fostering collaboration and supporting the development of the sociological field. It is organised in streams designed to represent the major areas of research with which sociologists are engaged.

These streams are open to any topic on which academics and researchers are currently working on, enabling delegates to meet with others who share their interests and explore a variety of subjects.

The conference offered me the opportunity to present my paper, titled, “Walking While Black in the English Countryside”,drawing heavily on my PhD research which uses walking ethnography and works from Spivak’s (1985) positionality on subaltern voices as lens to understand how hierarchy of power and landscape impact on the ontology of Blackness in the English landscape.

Sociologists have continued to debate existing knowledge hierarchies, using methodological approaches to help address societal problems and to bring about positive and constructive change.

This conference presented the opportunity to share findings of my PhD research on the critical need to reconsider the erasure of histories of people of Black African ancestry’s descent from English landscape history where National Parks are sited.

I proposed the need to reimagine the decoloniality of the English landscape constructed and historized as a ‘white space’. And instead, examine commonalities and solidaritiesby engaging in constructive debates on epistemic justice and decolonisation, by researching genuine sociological knowledge about the history, presence and contributions by Black people in English landscape history.