E9: Judith Kasiama of Colour the Trails

Judith Kasiama is the founder of Colour the Trails, a collective of Black, Indigenous, People of Colour and LGBTQ2S+ adventure seekers that has been growing and enriching Canada’s outdoor adventure community since 2017.

Judith was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but left as a refugee with her family, settling first in Australia, then the U.S., and then, in 2010, in Canada. 

She quickly took to the trails around her home in B.C., and while she saw some diversity on her hikes, the fabric of Canada’s outdoor industry still looked pretty white.

So she founded Colour the Trails in 2017 to provide opportunities for Black, Indigenous and people of colour around Vancouver to learn hiking, mountain biking, skiing and snowboarding as a community.

Since then, the group has expanded to add chapters in Alberta and Ontario. This episode featuring Judith covers:

• Diversifying Canada’s outdoor adventure industry

• How the conservation and leave no trace movements can be less exclusionary

• How white folks can help keep their Black, Indigenous and PoC friends safer in white-dominated spaces

• The joy of colourful outdoor fashions

• Judith’s favourite high-risk, high-reward, steep-learning-curve sports 

• Judith’s favourite and least favourite backcountry foods

 

To learn more about Colour the Trails, including how to become a member or support the group, visit colourthetrails.com.

 

Colour the Trails operates on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.

 

Music:

Yaki Tori and Mango by Smith The Mister https://smiththemister.bandcamp.com

Smith The Mister https://bit.ly/Smith-The-Mister-YT

Free Download / Stream: http://bit.ly/-yaki-tori

Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/oZ0U4Q5epUs

 

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