“I am driven by empathy and compassion in everything that I do. I understand my privilege and that there are gatekeepers and many white folks in the outdoors who are holding the key to a lot of outdoor knowledge. I cannot be made aware of the mountains of barriers that prohibit many marginalized and low income communities in relation to accessing the outdoors, and turn a blind eye. I want every body to have equal access to the outdoors - motivated by grace and compassion.”

What does diversifying the outdoors mean to you and what work are you doing within this space?

The word diversity has been so used and abused lately — I hate to say it, we’ve made it a buzzword and I am growing further away from it everyday. Other ways I might describe the work I am doing in the outdoors is “decolonizing the outdoors” or “decentering white-ness in the outdoors." Both narratives would apply to the work I am passionate about in this space. Thinking of outdoor recreation set aside from colonization, enslavement or elitists is hard to picture — but ultimately that is the kind of outdoors I would want to see: where all people are welcome to practice their family traditions, Indigenous peoples can learn and enjoy their native practices, and culture thrives no matter the color of your skin or the shape of your body. Decolonizing the outdoors has much more to do with the people in our communities than it does nature, the trees or mountains. Nature may not discriminate, but the people that occupy it sure do. As I understand, diversity in the outdoors encompasses belonging for all skin colors, ethnicities, religions, body types, ages, identities and disabilities. No one is excluded in the ways I branch out around this concept of truly welcoming all in the outdoors. After all — nature has never been ours to claim or say who belongs in it, but like so many other things, we try and succeed by taking the narrative of reciprocity out of the equation. The first step in working towards a more inclusive and culture focused outdoors where we all have a place is to bring awareness to the problem. There are still white folks in the outdoor community convinced that racism doesn’t exist in the outdoors and the more we talk about it,  the worse it gets. Comical really. Where I see it is very different — racism most definitely has a safe place nestled in the outdoors, and it is up to me to shed light on it and the ways we can chip away at. Through storytelling and working alongside outdoor brands and organizations I bring awareness to the problem. I focus on holding people accountable and create space for other Black women to be seen and heard in the industry. 

Tell me about your experiences outdoors/connecting to the land and how you integrate these experiences into your children’s lives!

Since becoming a mother and moving to the mountains, naturally I have had a huge lifestyle shift. My post partum journey has almost entirely revolved around outdoor experiences and finding reciprocity with the mountains and forests around me. My love of nature and my journey through motherhood are largely intertwined. I have taken it upon myself to teach my girls to engage with nature in a way that is more of a give than a take. I enjoy doing many things outdoors, from trail running to paddleboarding. I am an amateur at everything — and that’s okay with me. I enjoy my girls seeing my strengths and my failures in relation to the outdoors so they understand that it is a journey. My hopes are that they realize the importance of owning the title of a student rather than a scholar and can take that with them into womanhood. I am thankful for coming into my ability to recreate outdoors late in life. It has allowed me to see it for what it is — a huge privilege. Being in this community right here and right now has allowed me to understand that I do not have to play the part of an “outdoorsy” girl, I can re-create what I want that to look like without losing any part of who I really am. That is what I hope to pass on to my children and weave that into the ways we show up outdoors now and forever. You can be both Black and “outdoorsy”, there does not have to be a sacrifice of either part of who you are.

“Everywhere we go we talk about the Indigenous tribes that once filled the lands that we recreate on, and the ways they still exist and are worthy of acknowledgement today. Our outdoor experiences consist of hiking on P’Squosa ancestral lands — and I almost always ask my girls questions about how they think our Indigenous kin moved around on the land long before us. Integrating both a deep love of nature and the importance of advocating for others in a way they can understand. In the summer time as we float down the Wenatchee River as it flows into the Icicle at the confluence we reference the ways we have learned about the Wenatchi tribes and the ways they once utilized the space for much more important reasons than a leisure float. Having fun while simultaneously making them think outside of their own special kind of privilege.”

How has your experience as a woman of color been navigating this space? How do you feel as though identity has/still does shape(d) your experience?

On one hand, I wish I had someone that looked like me in the outdoors when I was growing up. On the other hand, I am exactly where and who I am supposed to be in my journey. All of the hard and heavy experiences I have endured up until this point have made me into the woman I am today. Without experiencing racism in the outdoors and in the rural community I live in I wouldn’t have much of a story to share here and I wouldn’t be able to speak to racist experiences. In a way I guess you can say I am thankful for the ways I have been excluded so that I can speak to the ways we can be more inclusive in the outdoors. I am thankful for my childhood and all the ways I experienced barriers to access in the outdoors, because now I can help point them out and tear them down. My experience living in a predominantly white community has prepared me for so many hard conversations, and I am exactly where I need to be. The outdoors wasn’t always my happy place, and I battled feeling welcome in these spaces for a short time. I was trying to be someone that I was not and trying to live up to this narrative of who is outdoors — playing the part and trying to be a Black woman in a white space instead of just being a Black woman in the outdoors. I am currently working on a film project where I am closely engaging with women of color that love to get outdoors just like me. We have had Zoom calls, physical time together on production, and many conversations around our lived experiences. Through finding this beautiful BIWOC (Black, Indigenous and women of color) community I have been able to find myself. I am no longer accepting the outdoors as a white space, because in doing that it excludes the stories and experiences of so many deserving people. Our stories deserve to be told as they are — not molded, not white centered, just as they are. As hard as it has been to find my identity in a community centered around people who do not look like me, I am finding my way — it’s all a part of the journey. Navigating, failing, communicating, reshaping, intentionality and continuing to show up.

Tell me a bit about the local community activism you are involved in!

As I mentioned before I live in a predominantly white community — my town is about 84% white, 15% Latinx and less than 1% Black, Asian, etc. There have not been a whole lot of brown people making waves or standing up against injustice and how it shows up in our community. Aside from me organizing trash crew clean ups around the trails and rivers in my area, the activist in me laid dormant. After the murder of George Floyd happened last year, there were protests happening in all 50 states and in every large city within those states. I worried that there wouldn’t be much action being taken in my town because of the large conservative community. After expressing my frustrations publicly — a few friends rallied together alongside me and planned a protest that shook our town. Over 1,300 people came to march against the police brutality that affects Black and brown communities everyday in our country. My husband, who has lived here most of his life said he had never been a part of anything like it before. From that protest, a small activist group called Activate Leavenworth was born. We are currently in a building and research phase, taking time to recharge and figure out how we want to present in our community. Since the summer I have found myself co-producing and co-directing a film project with a local filmmaker named Erin Joy Nash. She came to me over a year ago now with an idea of creating a film featuring Black, Indigenous and women of color in the outdoors. Since then we have collaborated on an event called Unity Week that spanned the six days around the election from November 2nd through the 7th. We showed up in downtown Leavenworth every night for a week creating a space for our community to talk, make art, encourage peace and listen to music. This was an awesome way to show up in the community and I was thankful to have the opportunity to be a part of something so healing around such a tumultuous time period. My hopes for the future are to continue growing the community around the Brave Space Film Project, and have community building and storytelling workshops to follow. Long term, I hope to be able to start an inclusive hiking community around the Leavenworth area, as soon as it is safe to meet up in person again.

Tell me about the film you are currently working on! What are the intentions behind it and what importance do they hold for you?

I am currently collaborating on a film you may have heard me refer to as the Brave Space Film Project. The idea for this film was born a little over a year ago by a local activist, filmmaker and dear friend of mine Erin Nash. After seeing some of my activism I was doing around the community she came to me to see if I would want to partner on bringing representation to film and filmmaking in our valley. After many chats about the lack of diversity in the outdoors, outdoor films and storytelling, we decided to create a film that would represent the underrepresented and re-create what “outdoorsy” women can look like. After a quick call to action coming from my platform “Calling all nature loving BIWOC” — we received over 55 responses from BIWOC in the outdoors that wanted to be a part of this film in some capacity. Due to Covid-19 we had to limit production to Washington state women, but turns out that was a bit of a blessing in disguise. The intention behind this film is to raise awareness, represent BIPOC engaging in the outdoors, encourage good land stewardship and build up a community that is a brave space for women of color in the outdoors. This film will weave together the stories and b roll of the 12 women we landed on for representing the diverse stories in this film. Behind the camera is a team of multicultural women, we are co directing, co producing, co editing and leaving our egos at the door. It was very important for us to be sure to have representation behind and in front of the camera so as not to produce another film through the eyes of a white person. There are plenty of those outdoor films — those are great too — but I think it’s important to decenter whiteness as we are telling such beautiful stories of women of color going forward. This film is not your average outdoor film — but we promise to have some familiarity and stoke worthy visuals. This film is for everyone. Our intentions are to be sure that all women see themselves represented within our film. We hope that people won’t think of this as “that film about brown girls — for brown girls”. Our hopes are that everyone will want to see and support this film and leave with a genuine understanding of how much representation matters. This will be a short documentary seeking to redefine “outdoorsy” and reclaim belonging in the outdoors for ALL women by showcasing our joys, our resilience, our understanding of reciprocity with nature and so much more. Karen Fancis McWhite, the amazing Black woman behind our film script said it best : “Our film is changing the visual grammar of women of color loving, exploring, and playing in the natural world. It’s a homecoming. It’s a recovery. It’s a reclamation.” I hope you will support our film project and the crowd funding we are launching March 9, 2021. This project is so important to me because in all the film festivals I have attended, not one had representation in front of or behind the camera. I have never had the opportunity to see myself in the characters in outdoor films, I remember leaving festivals feeling largely uninspired! I want to be able to watch this documentary with my children and watch their eyes light up to seeing themselves represented on screen. To say this is a passion project for me is an understatement — this is everything. We will raise funds to support all of the hard work that’s gone into this so far, and the community building we hope to see during distribution and beyond.

Thank you so much for chatting with me, Chelsea! Lastly, for those looking to follow along with your content and support you, where can they find you and what does supporting you look like?

shecolorsnature.wpcomstaging.com and @she_colorsnature on Instagram. At this point - supporting the film and crowdfunding campaign around @BraveSpace_Media is supporting me. Share, follow and support our film!