Decolonizing Outdoor Spaces with Sanjana Sekhar
In this episode, Sarah Harrison sits down with Filmmaker Sanjana Sekhar to discuss a short documentary called Expedition Reclamation, which Sanjana co-directed as part of the Brave Space Project.
Listen in to learn how the film seeks to reclaim the outdoors for underrepresented voices, and how this project relates to creative storytelling and environmental justice.
Climate Designers will be presenting a screening of the film and a panel interview with the filmmakers on July 20 for our supporting members. This episode will give you a little sneak peek before the main event goes down in a few weeks.
Links Mentioned in this Episode:
Transcript
[00:00:00]
[00:00:29] Hey, climate designers, Sarah here, and today I'm so grateful to be joined by an incredible filmmaker.
[00:00:36] We're going to spend this episode discussing their film and how it relates to creative storytelling and environmental justice. The film we're discussing today is a short documentary called Expedition Reclamation. The film seeks to redefine the term "outdoorsy" and decolonize outdoor culture. It was created by a multiracial women-led radically collaborative creative team called the Brave Space Project.
[00:01:01] Championing traditionally underrepresented voices, their work seeks to amplify character-driven stories that heal our human relationships to each other and to our planet with a focus on socio-ecological justice, ancestral knowledge, regeneration and compassionate living.
[00:01:19] Climate Designers will be presenting a screening of the film and a panel interview with the filmmakers on July 20th for our supporting members. Find all of the info at climatedesigners.org/GPS.
[00:01:33] And today I'm excited to have the opportunity to give you a little sneak peek before the main event goes down in a few weeks. Please allow me to introduce you to one of the three directors of Expedition Reclamation who has been kind enough to hang out with me today. Sanjana Sekhar is an Indian American filmmaker, climate activist and outdoor wanderer. Sanjana is one of the directors for this beautiful documentary. Thank you so much for joining me today.
[00:02:00] Thank you so much for having me, Sarah. I'm so excited to get to chat with you today.
[00:02:05] Yeah. So you're one of the directors of Expedition Reclamation, and I'll just dive right into my questions so we can talk about all of this. What was your motivation for making this film and for founding the Brave Space Project?
[00:02:19] Yeah, that's a great question and I love talking about that. So I actually joined out of the three directors, I was the last one to come on board. The way that the project came to be was my two co-directors Chelsea Murphy and Erin Joy Nash. Chelsea is a outdoor activist and talks a lot about representation in the outdoors for people of color and for women and specifically for black women and black girls.
[00:02:46] And Erin is a filmmaker who focuses a lot on social justice in her work. And the two of them both live in Leavenworth, Washington and came together around this idea of why in outdoor media, we really only see the stories of white men. And those stories often focus on this idea of conquering or bagging a peak or pushing a grade, doing the hardest scariest thing out there and and they came together on this idea of what about everyone else? What about all the stories that don't look like that the stories of women and people of color who exist in the outdoors really differently.
[00:03:24] And so they wanted to see what would happen if we started telling those stories. And so they put a call out for people on Instagram, just saying, Hey, if you are a woman of color and you. Identify as outdoorsy or enjoy outdoor recreation, let us know. And 55 women reached out. I was one of them and a bunch of people wanted to share their stories.
[00:03:45] I was like, I wanna be behind the lens. I wanna help you all tell these stories. And so that's how the project came to be. And how the community around the project came to be as well. So we have 12 of those 55 who reached out are in front of the camera as characters in the film. I am behind the camera and Chelsea's both, Erin's also behind the camera.
[00:04:07] And then the rest of the women who reached out are part of a community where we get to be in these spaces together virtually or in person.
[00:04:16] Awesome. So that's basically what the Brave Space Project is.
[00:04:19] Exactly.
[00:04:21] That's amazing. Diving into what you said about outdoorsy being white men and about conquering and all of that stuff.
[00:04:28] I know one of the things that the film gets into is the inclusivity of outdoor access. And for people who maybe hold outdoor privilege and aren't aware of the barriers to outdoor access, can you describe this topic from your point of view and from the other filmmaker's point of view for people?
[00:04:48] Absolutely. Yeah, I will definitely I can definitely speak a bit to how I've experienced it and what I've seen. And I know that Chelsea and Erin also have great points on this that we'll probably get into with the panel after the screening that you guys are hosting as well. But I think that when it comes to barriers to outdoor access, there's kind of two, two things going on.
[00:05:10] There's tangible barriers, like the price of gear or knowing about trails, even having the knowledge to say, I go on this app or this website to find trail information or trails near me. That's something that not everybody knows, like not everyone knows those avenues for For information.
[00:05:30] And then I think there's also a big safety component, right? So if I am a woman in the outdoors, if I'm a woman of color in the outdoors, I'm thinking a lot about where am I, in what part of the country am I, how many people are around me? What kinds of people are around me? Do I have any safety mechanisms to protect myself and things like that, because there are real concerns around around being a woman and around being a person of color outside, both historical and present day.
[00:05:56] And then I think there's some more intangible things as well. And I think that's where this idea of belonging and reclaiming belonging comes in and the intangibles are like, if I'm outside and I'm playing a certain kind of music, that's not, a folksy or blue grassy or indie rock band. Are you gonna look at me weird?
[00:06:14] If I play my music from my diaspora, South Asian music. Are you gonna look at me weird or if I'm cooking something that smells different than what you're cooking on my campfire. Are you gonna look at me? Weird. Are you gonna ask me questions? And so I think. There are those intangible things as well.
[00:06:29] And part of reclaiming belonging is validating those things to ourselves as people of color, and also in the greater mainstream outdoor culture saying it's okay that I listen to different music or I walk at a different pace, or I cook different things and eat different things. And. It's okay.
[00:06:46] That my nails are painted. It's okay. That I like to put on a little lipstick. These are all expressions of who I am. And even though they don't go with mainstream outdoor culture, they are just as valid. So I think those are some of the some of the barriers. And I know, for example, I was talking to some friends a few weeks ago and one of them.
[00:07:04] Had done a through-hike in the us a while ago. And he was talking about whether or not he had a safety GPS tracker on him and they were, all the guys were talking about oh, I don't always use those because what's the point in always being safe, sometimes in life, like you gotta be a little unsafe to make yourself uncomfortable.
[00:07:23] And it was such an interesting conversation to me because these are good friends of mine. And I was like, this. It's really revealing. That's a very white male perspective because in my day to day life, I'm not safe. So to me, if I go outside, I wanna be as safe as possible. It's not an avenue for me to explore discomfort because I experience discomfort on a day to day basis.
[00:07:43] So how do we actually make the outdoors more comfortable for people like me and people who have not always had the privilege of feeling comfortable anywhere that they show up.
[00:07:53] Wow. Yeah. I agree with you with that last bit. I, that's not the kind of adventure I wanna have.
[00:07:59] exactly right. Like when you always, you are always assessing threats as a woman or as a woman of color, like who's gonna, is someone gonna hurt me out here?
[00:08:07] Do I have to act a certain way to blend in? Do I have to act a certain way to make sure no one notices me, things like that. So it's really trying to. Strip those away so that when you're outside, you can just be, because when we're in community with each other outside, we are just there. We're just belonging.
[00:08:22] And there's no question of safety. There's no question of are these people gonna accept me? But as soon as you put that into context with mainstream outdoor culture, which is still very white male, then suddenly all those things arise. And suddenly, you do feel like the other, even though you and your ancestors may have been doing this for forever.
[00:08:40] Yeah, that's a great point. And when you were talking about in certain places, especially in the US, if you are listening to different kind of music or you look different or you're eating different food, like there will be people who will, make a big deal out of it. And that's not anything that I would've ever thought of because of my place of privilege and ignorance.
[00:08:59] And so I'm just so grateful for you and your team for putting this story out there in the creative and joyful and amazing way that you're doing it. I think it's just beautiful.
[00:09:11] Yeah. And thank you so much for being part of our community in that journey.
[00:09:15] Absolutely. I love it. I can't wait to see the film.
[00:09:17] Climate designers is all about redefining the role that designers and creatives can play in the climate action movement. So I feel like this is about using creativity to help ideate solutions and share information. What do you think about the role that creativity and design and art can play in the broader movement?
[00:09:37] That's a great question. I've been thinking a lot about this because when it comes to pushing the needle on justice, there is a role that everybody plays and everybody's role is different.
[00:09:49] So like you said, what is the role of artists and creatives? And I think about how with anything that is storytelling related. And I think design is storytelling. Art is storytelling. All of this — film, writing, speaking, this podcast, right? It's all about connecting with people. All you wanna do is help somebody or help yourself process ideas and maybe find somebody out there that can resonate in the electricity of an idea with you.
[00:10:21] And I've been thinking a lot about something my mom shared with me recently, which is that in our culture in south Asian culture there's an idea from some of our ancient texts that all suffering comes from separation. So if you think about storytelling as being rooted in connection, then it is inherently an antithesis to suffering, right?
[00:10:43] So it is all about trying to heal that. And so when storytelling is rooted in that concept and that power of healing, then when we look at a crisis like the climate crisis, or when we think about the ways in which the climate crisis and racial justice are inherently related and there's so much in there to to acknowledge and to heal.
[00:11:06] Then storytelling becomes a really powerful tool in that journey of connecting people, community, building, reimagining the world and thinking about, a lot of people will be like I don't really see how it could be any different. And I'm like why don't you ask that question really? Like, how can it be different? Let's not ask that rhetorically.
[00:11:21] So I think that's where storytelling comes in,is in all of those spaces to fill in the community and the imagination when we're addressing a really scary crisis.
[00:11:32] Yeah, I love what you said there. Storytelling, I think a lot of designers don't think of themselves as storytellers. And once you say it, there's like the light bulb that goes over our heads and we encourage them to become intentional storytellers. And instead of telling the story that they are given by clients or employers or just culture. Think about the story that they want to tell, think about the world that they want to imagine. Like you said, and make that real. We have the tools to make that real.
[00:12:02] Yeah. It's so true. And even with client work, it's like the client is coming to you as a designer because you're a storyteller because they know that the font you choose, or the color you choose or the layout that you choose and all the other things that you're choosing are subliminal messaging, and what is subliminal messaging if not a story?
[00:12:19] Maybe it's one that you can't really identify, but that's in a way even more powerful. And so I think that if clients are coming to you as a designer, because you're a storyteller, then there's so much power there to, when you tap into that power intentionally.
[00:12:34] Absolutely. And you know what, as you say that, subliminal, it reminds me that sometimes the reaction that I get, when I talk about designers as storytellers and being intentional about it, they start to think oh, isn't that manipulative?
[00:12:50] And the truth is. We're all manipulating our culture and our culture is manipulating us. So we might as well try and do it for the better.
[00:12:59] Totally. And I also think that idea of manipulation or that it's inherently manipulation can be a colonial construct too. Because that comes from this idea that anytime humans, exercise influence on something it's inherently negative and that's not true. We know that we've seen that same idea play out when it comes to climate solutions, quote unquote, where it's like humans need to really shrink themselves, shrink their impact. I learned a lot from someone named Farmer Rishi Kamar who talks a lot about, yeah.
[00:13:29] He talks about like increasing your footprint, right? He's for example, with the Amazon humans have gardened the Amazon. Millennia. And now we look at that as the lungs of the earth, and it's not an untouched wilderness. It's something that has been influenced by humans. And you could look at that as oh, humans were manipulating different plants to select one versus the other.
[00:13:50] And that has a really negative connotation. Or you can say humans were weaving, right? We were weaving a story in the Amazon in the same way you can weave a story as a designer. And it really depends on how you look at yourself and your place in the world. Are you somebody who whatever you do anytime you have an impact, it's a bad thing, or can that impact be a really positive thing.
[00:14:10] Yeah, Marc just sent me a Farmer Rishi, Instagram carousel recently. I'm so glad you brought that up.
[00:14:17] Yeah.
[00:14:17] Where he talked about, one of the colonial time explorers looking out at what he thought was wilderness and was actually an indigenous cultivated garden.
[00:14:27] Yeah, exactly. And it's been such a huge way of erasing the wisdom that indigenous cultures around the world have always had too is by looking at that as wilderness.
[00:14:37] But that is actually indigenous science. Embodied. And so I think, yeah, Farmer Rishi, he knows this. I always joke about the fact that anytime I reference my perspective on climate action, I have to talk about that because it really just shifted how I look at everything.
[00:14:52] Yeah. Me too. He's so influential.
[00:14:54] Yeah.
[00:14:56] So good. Okay. Taking it back to designers. How might we as designers take inspiration from your work in a way that is directly actionable? We always love to talk about action. Yeah. I would look at that in maybe a two-pronged way. One thing is when it comes to storytelling as designers or as anybody, one thing this project has taught me is they always say With storytelling, find your voice.
[00:15:21] And I think that's so true, but I've learned it's so important for us to use your ears and listen. And one thing that we did with this project, because there were 55 women that came came out and said that they identify this way and they wanna be a part of this is we held a series of community calls and we just listened and just heard what the people, whose stories we were hoping to tell.
[00:15:43] Wanted to tell as their stories. Cause oftentimes we go in saying, this is what I wanna talk about. And maybe that's not actually what needs to be talked about according to the people that you are talking about. So getting to listen was a really important part of. Storytelling with this project, I think.
[00:16:00] And just looking at storytelling as a method of community building, rather than just as here's this thing that you did and you put it out and you've got an accolade or something for it, and now it's done. So that is one thing when it comes to like process, I think when it comes to the theme of the film and the idea of decolonizing, the outdoors, one thing that, again, that this has taught me, that I feel is so actionable in my own life is looking at the way that everybody.
[00:16:24] Shows up in a space as valid, right? As long as that person's not doing something that is inherently negative, there's so much power that we have as fellow outdoors people or fellow designers or fellow, whatever you identify as community wise. If you're just looking up and saying "yes, and" to the people that come in and not trying to Impose a certain way of being on anybody.
[00:16:46] I think that it sounds intangible, but it's if you think about the next time you go outside and you see someone doing something that you've never seen before, if your response is huh, weird versus if your response is oh, cool. Like that to me is action right there because that's action on your own mind.
[00:17:02] And that's the process in your own mind of shifting the narrative that you're showing up with. And if action starts with yourself, then I think that action is really sustainable.
[00:17:13] Beautiful. Thank you. Yeah like I said, we're going to have a lot more time to chat with Sanjana and Chelsea and Erin, the co-directors of Expedition Reclamation on July 20th at 4 PM Pacific time. We're going to do a film screening. I can't wait to see the film and then follow that up with a panel discussion. So you'll be able to learn from all of the women behind the film and talk more about creative storytelling in the face of the climate crisis.
[00:17:43] Talk about their process of making this film and more of this inspirational perspective on approaching the climate crisis with optimism and hope and joy and love and all of the things that you have infused into this film. and I wanna ask before we wrap up what's coming up.
[00:18:01] Are there any new projects you all are working on or organizations you wanna highlight or anything? Where can we check this stuff out?
[00:18:09] Yeah. So you can follow along with all of our work at @bravespace_media on Instagram or on bravespaceproject.org if you are looking for our website, We are definitely excited about a few upcoming projects. You'll see all of that on those channels as we start sharing.
[00:18:28] Amazing. Thank you so much for spending those time with me.
[00:18:31] Thank you so much, Sarah. I'm so happy to be here.
[00:18:35] Yay. And once again, you can find out about the film screening at climatedesigners.org/GPS, and we hope to see you there.
[00:18:43] Yes.
[00:18:43]