“We believe the one who has power. He is the one who gets to write the story. So when you study history, you must ask yourself, Whose story am I missing? Whose voice was suppressed so that this voice could come forth? Once you have figured that out, you must find that story too. From there you get a clearer, yet still imperfect, picture.”

—Yaa Gyasi, Homegoing

As a new Canadian, I want to acknowledge that I reside on the unceded territories of the x?m??k??y??m (Musqueam), S?wx?wú7mesh (Squamish), and Sel?íl?witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. I am honored to be living and creating on these beautiful lands.

I started this piece quoting Ghanaian-American writer Yaa Gyasi from her debut novel Homegoing. When I first read this quote four years ago, I didn’t realize that her words would accompany me on a path of self-discovery and activism for Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) in the outdoors.

My name is Judith Kasiama, and I am the founder of Colour the Trails, based in Vancouver. My work entails creating safe space for Black Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) to recreate in the outdoors by organizing events and advocating for more diversity and inclusion through better representation in media and storytelling.

When we hear the terms “diversity” and “inclusion,” our first instinct is to look at race. We forget about the intersections of identity that shapes how we view the world and, in return, how the world views us. While race plays a huge role when it comes to barriers, accessibility, lack of representation, and policies that impact how certain demographics take part in certain spaces, we must not overlook the intersectionality of one’s identity. Intersectionality was coined by Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw, law professor at Columbia Law School,  as a means of describing how race, gender, class, along with individual lived attributes “intersect.”