To overcome the lack of diversity in outdoor sports, some women are offering programming that helps get racialized people out onto lakes, trails and ski hills
Finding your place in a scene that hasn’t historically included people like you can be an uncomfortable proposition. Whether it be skiing, biking, hiking or fishing – all activities that have become ever more popular through the pandemic – the postcard images of these sports have always been very white. Lack of diversity in the outdoors is a complicated problem, but one, it turns out, that women are more apt to tackle.
Removing the male gaze, along with other hurdles such as access to gear, locations and partners, allows women to more fully immerse themselves in the learning experience, Judith Kasiama says.Kasiama, whose organization puts together introductions to everything from rock climbing to rowing, highlights the fact it’s exceedingly difficult to enter the communities and cultures that form around these activities as an individual outsider. It feels much more approachable with other BIPOC.
“I fell a lot today,” Kasiama says at the end of her ski trip, “I was so tired, but having everyone cheer me on was so encouraging.” In that spirit, she often partners with another organization called Indigenous Women Outdoors, founded by Myia Antone, of the Squamish Nation, and delivered with the help of Sandy Ward of the Lil’wat Nation . Ward, an accomplished snowboarder who co-leads IWO’s backcountry mentorship program, says having someone take charge and put a group together is often the biggest step in opening up space.
She recently returned from leading six other women on a canoe-based fly-fishing trip in Temagami River Provincial Park in Northern Ontario, and the big question was how to get BIPOC men outside, too.
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