Canerow: Threads of Intergenerational Leadership is a storytelling series capturing the wisdom, resilience, and vision of Black women leaders across generations. Rooted in the Canerow project, these reflections explore leadership, legacy, and community through the voices of those shaping the future. The full interviews will be included in a print publication and released for Black History Month 2025.

Interview with Yvonne Christie by Yvonne Field OBE

When did your leadership journey begin?   

I started community work as a volunteer in 1980. I began thinking, if everybody’s equal, how come this man makes all the decisions, with another male as his second in command? I asked these questions because when I joined the organisation operating in Peckham, SE London, I was told ‘there was no hierarchy, and it operated as a collective’. 

Why were they making all the decisions in the pub – outside of scheduled collective meetings? These questions I aired, and I realised I was allowed to speak and challenge unequal things. I guess on reflection, that was the start of my learning and growth in leadership. 

How do you feel your identity informed, influenced or hindered your leadership journey?  

My identity as a Black woman is an integral part of who I’ve grown up to become. I come from a Jamaican household, where my leader was my mother. My dad was there throughout my life, but my Mom ran and managed the household amongst other things. Guess we could say she was definitely our family’s matriarch  

As a young woman I observed, women did all the practical work and planning, whilst the men got away with minimal household duties. I’m sure witnessing inequality and bias in favour of my brothers, definitely shaped my identity because I questioned even way back then, why dad and the boys got special treatment and got away with coasting through life. But also got all the pleasures.  

My observations of being a woman, and I hope it’s past tense. labelled us as too talkative, hysterical, excitable, nagging, bossy. I think these stereotypes are engineered to keep us quiet. Yet, what women have to say creates important balances. I don’t think you can do community work and not notice sexism, racism and class in the UK. Once your antenna is up you start noticing who society is keeping down and who gets elevated.   

As a Black school kid, I probably experienced racism, though our parents never used that direct term. They never said negative stuff happens because you’re Black. They were, however, more likely to tell my brothers off when they were stopped by the police as though it was their fault they got stopped walking home. In those days, I believe Caribbean parents thought the authorities were honest, so assumed my brothers must have done something wrong to be noticed.   

My life’s observations and personal experiences definitely informed and influenced my leadership. I started seeing it as my responsibility to speak up and advocate for people who do not always have a voice. In relation to whether being a black woman hinders me of course it can- but I recognise that and go forward anyway. 

How have you learned to trust and build on trust on your journey?  

When I walked into the room as a tall, attractive woman who loved colourful stuff and who secretly thought she was the bees’ knees, with my Birmingham accent and weird attire, sometimes some women acted like they didn’t like me. This was not a good vibe when trying to work on women’s and/or girls’ issues! Lol.  

Being young and naive, I felt intimidated in my early days of community development.  So, I learned how to lower people’s suspicions of who I am, or who they thought I was. So many of us walk with undisclosed trauma and anger towards each other and once I understood this, working with women became easier and less intimidating for me. As my anxiety lessened so did that of the people I connected with, thank goodness. 

I realised I had to undo the unsubtle messages that are often directed at women. Instead, I notice who is really working the hardest, yet gets the most blame. I look at how many things women are handling and notice how they are the consistent bedrocks of the family and the community. I started to realise there’s nothing to mistrust – women are the best.  

Where has your support come from?   

When I was younger, my family was very important. Family can be beautiful, but it also has challenges and can drive people crazy. Family was my biggest support because if something happened, I could go to my mom or sister. I wouldn’t necessarily tell mom the entire story, but she could tell by my face when I was sad.   

I also get my support from the people I work with; they support me, and I support them.   

How do you continue to learn and expand your knowledge?   

When I got involved in a range of different organisations, I would notice how people spoke in abbreviations, assuming we all understood. Feeling excluded through language is a massive barrier to understanding, learning and development. In certain professional settings, I would look around and notice that people may be reluctant to expose themselves as ignorant just for asking for clarification or wider understanding of things not understood so, I would ask, and I would see relief on others’ faces. I feel that’s how I continue to develop, by not minding being the slow one. I class it as one of my skills, to be brave and not to worry about how I come across and, of course, asking questions can sometimes annoy others. I come to realise my questioning is helpful for others. 

How do you want to be remembered and what are you doing to work towards that goal or outcome?  

When Yvonne Field and I sat and talked about Ubele before Ubele became Ubele, way back when, we talked about women like Sybil Phoenix and others, who maybe didn’t get wider recognition. There are so many Black women out there who people don’t know about. When we do our work, we do not often think about leaving legacies.  

If I am pushed, I’d like to be remembered as a soldier. By that I don’t mean going to war but being prepared to be out in the trenches. Not necessarily leading from the front but beavering away and being reliable and responsible for getting work highlighted and operational. I recently co-produced a magazine called Seasons for Ubele, which highlighted some wonderful women aged 60 plus who had done great work within our communities for many, many years.  

I don’t particularly like talking about myself; let the work speak. On a more personal level, I’d like my two children to remember me as forever evolving – and a not too awful cook!  

What advice would you give to older women in your space?  

Young people look up to us as elders so we must be real about ourselves. We should be open and admit our mistakes. I hear youngsters say we don’t tell them things. We leave them to struggle on alone. Let’s guide and share more.  

If you were to speak to your younger self, what would you say? What advice might you give and why?  

I think I’d say just be more confident. I was quite shy. I had to decide in my 20s not to let shyness stop me moving forward. I’m much better at promoting other people than I do for myself. 

How do you handle criticism?  

I’ve had to deal with criticism; I’ve learned to take the punches, and it helps me to reflect.   

During the Covid transitional years, I attended an in-person workshop on women and equality. Participants were all white women, bar myself, and I was also the oldest by at least a generation- so my perspective could be seen as outdated, as I just didn’t agree with all the things they were saying. I felt it was just too extreme.  

I consider myself a ‘womanist’, but I was totally unceremoniously hammered. I was silenced by women and felt unable to swim through the verbal and nonverbal criticism I was feeling.  My lived experiences were different from theirs.  

Men have done a lot of harmful things to women, and still do, but I don’t think a lot of men know what the new rules are. Who teaches them how to be respectful to young people and women, when for years they were allowed to wolf whistle unabashedly and be incredibly sexist. There have been a lot of recent court cases of workplace misbehaviour, usually by men, but who is re-educating both men and women of these statutory changes in relation to behaviours, attitudes and oppressive practices? And how are young men and women able to connect when there is so much fear and criticism around? 

Certainly, many things that were acceptable back in my day, are not deemed appropriate now. I am open to criticism and learning on this and many other issues, but only if my viewpoints alongside others, are listened to as well. Currently my despair is we have to follow prescriptive lines with no discussions or queries of ‘why’ and ‘what does that mean in practise’. 

So yep, I can handle criticism…by the same token, are we allowed to criticise others and changes that come along in our worlds of community development or are we being more and more coerced into acceptance without critique? I am just asking. 

Yvonne Christie’s interview provides rich insights into the challenges and triumphs faced by Black women leaders. Her journey underscores the powerful impact of identity and lived experience on leadership styles and approaches.  

This image of Yvonne Christie was illustrated by Tinuke Fagborun and commissioned by The Ubele Initiative.