Jacqueline Scott is passionate about the outdoors: hiking, camping, canoeing, cycling, snowshoeing, there is nothing to her test. “I am part of several groups, I guide outings on foot and by bike,” says the young woman. But whenever I’m outdoors, I’m the only black girl. I come to ask myself: what is happening in this space, what is happening with this activity so that we see so few racialized people? “
In addition to being an outdoor enthusiast, Jacqueline Scott is a doctoral candidate at the University of Toronto, more specifically at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Her thesis focuses on the perception of nature in the imagination of blacks and she participated in the writing of Racial equity and urban nature, a report prepared for the Nature Canada organization that explores the barriers to greater diversity in the outdoors.
Some obstacles are physical, others psychological, she notes.
Distance and time
First, there is a question of costs and distance: disadvantaged families and newcomers do not necessarily have the means to access nature.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
Navette Nature hopes to resume its transportation service to parks in the Montreal region next spring. The organization hopes to enter into partnerships to use electric buses.
Catherine Lefebvre, co-founder of Navette Nature, was able to observe this aspect of the question. Navette Nature is currently on hiatus due to the pandemic, but the organization normally arranges low-cost transportation to municipal and provincial parks. Thanks to sponsorships from large companies, the small organization was able to provide free transportation to certain destinations.
“It was on these journeys that we saw the greatest cultural diversity,” says M.me Lefebvre. It was striking. ”
There is also a question of time available. Lourdenie Jean, founder of the project L’Environnement, c’est intersectionnel, tells how she organized a free retreat in a chalet in the Laurentians for health workers.
“It was difficult for them to participate in this retreat because they had to work overtime,” recalls M.me Jeans. It was difficult to predict in advance if they were going to have a weekend off. It was only one night, but it was already taking too long. ”
Access to green spaces in cities can also be problematic: there are often fewer parks in disadvantaged neighborhoods and the quality of these parks can sometimes be poor.
Lourdenie Jean gives the example of Frédéric-Back Park, in the Saint-Michel district. “It was a place where we put waste,” she recalls. Even today, there is a large space where the compost is treated. [avec le bruit et les odeurs qui y sont associés]. It plays on the quality of the space. ”
Psychological obstacles: not to be overlooked
The psychological barriers are less visible, but just as important. Several members of racialized communities feel uneasy, if not outright fear, when the time comes to visit an outdoor space frequented overwhelmingly by whites.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY JACQUELINE SCOTT
Jacqueline Scott is passionate about a wide variety of outdoor activities, from kayaking and hiking to snowshoeing and camping.
When you are a group of black people and you go to the park to relax and have a picnic, you are always afraid that someone will call the police.
Jacqueline Scott
She wants parks and conservation organizations to hire more people of color.
“It makes it easier if, for example, I don’t know how to pitch a tent and someone who looks like me is helping me,” she says. Such a person will just think: “This is someone who doesn’t have a lot of camping experience”. Whereas if it’s a white person, she might think something like “Oh, these people don’t know what to do in the woods ”. It is not the same message. ”
Parks and organizations are starting to feature racialized people in their promotional photos, but according to Jacqueline Scott, that’s not enough. They have to be given a place on the staff and on the boards of directors.
Catherine Lefebvre stresses the importance of kindness, especially when you are an experienced outdoor enthusiast. Member of the board of directors of Aventure Écotourisme Québec, this is a question that particularly concerns her.
“As an industry, how can we prepare to welcome this clientele? How to disseminate information? ”
A simple question of vocabulary can help cultural communities to better tame the outdoors. The very concept of the outdoors is not always obvious to many of them. Catherine Lefebvre thus suggests changing “outdoor activities” to “outdoor activities”, and “hiking” to “forest walking”.
“A walk in the forest sounds a little less like a physical ordeal! She laughs.
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, PRESS ARCHIVES
The organization Plein air interculturel organizes outdoor activities for beginners, and in particular for newcomers.
In addition to Navette Nature and L’Environnement, it’s intersectional, other organizations in Quebec seek to facilitate the participation of cultural communities and racialized communities in the outdoors, such as Motivaction Jeunesse in Quebec and Plein air interculturel in Montreal.
Ironically, the pandemic has contributed to greater outdoor diversity.
“We were so tired of being confined indoors that a lot of people started exploring the nature that was literally across the street,” says Jacqueline Scott. Many black people did not know that such spaces existed near their homes. ”
It now remains for them to feel welcome.
Read the report Racial equity and urban nature
Consult the Plein air interculturel site Consult the Motivaction jeunesse site Consult the L’Environnement site, c’est intersectionnel Consult the Navette Nature site
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