Nothing Without Us

Re-enchanting Advocacy

This week, we're reissuing a solo episode from April 2024, where Angie shares an essay on allyship and advocacy in the context of global atrocities and the war in Gaza, and how these events intersect with educators’ roles and school conversations about the Middle East. She argues that passive allyship and apathy have catastrophic impacts, urging listeners to face the horror of dehumanisation—citing events including the Hamas killing of 1,200 Israeli civilians, the Tigray War, ethnic cleansing in Sudan, mass killings in Syria and Ukraine, and the Israeli invasion of Gaza with at least 30,000 killed—and to respond with rehumanising advocacy. Angie offers examples of advocacy from personal check-ins to organisational policy reviews and public speech, and connects international conflict to rising UK Islamophobic and antisemitic hate crimes, calling for solidarity and strategies to mitigate faith-based discrimination.

The Week That Was, Re-Enchanted: International Women's Day

Angie Browne reflects on International Women’s Day and how it has shifted from its socialist, working-class origins into a more corporate, marketing-friendly celebration, using narrative literacy to examine which stories are told and which are erased. Browne then applies narrative and relational literacy to Theresa May’s 2011 Violence Against Women Action Plan, acknowledging policy advances while also naming the harms of austerity, cuts to specialist services, refuges, and a hostile environment, and offers questions for how organisations mark IWD and who is centred or excluded.

The BAFTAs

Angie Browne shares an essay written in response to the BAFTAs and the BBC broadcasting the N word during a time-delayed edit, while reportedly editing out an acceptance speech that included “Free Palestine.” She argues for lineage consciousness, urging listeners to see the incident not as a one-off but as part of a long pattern of institutional behavior by BAFTA and the BBC, citing previous controversies involving racism, disability, and organisational culture. Angie explores how unclear values and a lack of a lived culture of care create spectated lawlessness, and introduces relational literacy and Sarah Ahmed’s Sticky Emotions to explain how shame, fear, anger, and disgust circulate and attach to people, fueling pile-ons that distract from institutional accountability.  To read the article in full, subscribe to Angie's Substack at https://beingluminary.substack.com/p/tending-emotional-currents-and-sovereignty?r=51drxi

The Week That Was, Re-Enchanted: The Farmer - Tenant, Mother, President

Angie Browne reflects on Minette Batters becoming the first female president of the UK National Farmers Union in 2018, and uses her story to explore women’s exclusion from land, farming, and decision-making. She outlines Batters’ path from being discouraged by her father, to building a tenant farming business and leading the NFU, and considers what tenant farming reveals about wealth, power, and concentrated land ownership in England. Angie connects these dynamics to colonisation, imperialism, and the narratives that positioned men as rightful owners and lawmakers while relegating women to unpaid domestic and farm labour. Drawing on her ideas of lineage consciousness and legacy consciousness (including “seven generations” thinking), she celebrates women’s longstanding relationships with growing and stewardship, questions why women farmers are treated as unusual in the UK, and imagines a future where women and girls have secure, collective access to land and are no longer bearing the burden of others’ profit.

The Week That Was, Re-Enchanted: The NGO - Dignity, Depths and Doing Good

In this episode Angie Browne discusses the 2018 Haiti earthquake scandal involving Oxfam, highlighting moral failings and institutional accountability. Angie explores themes such as spiritual literacy, dignitary authority, and liberatory literacy, while analyzing Oxfam's internal culture and response. She questions the organisation's moral superiority, temporal sovereignty, and how they handle harm. The importance of learning from past mistakes and prioritising the dignity of impacted communities over institutional reputation is emphasised. Angie invites listeners to reflect on their own organisations' values and practices. You can sign up for Angie's Substack newsletter here https://beingluminary.substack.com/ [https://beingluminary.substack.com/]