Looking through a new lens
"This right here is the closest you can get to magic," said Sherman Dean, who was part of a group of diverse people invited to be the first to walk in the newly discovered stand of redwoods that was long-rumored to be nestled in the hills above California's Sonoma Coast. Now the forest is protected by the accredited Save the Redwoods League.
In 2018, the League purchased the land and started posting about it on Facebook. Teresa Baker, founder of the Outdoor CEO Diversity Pledge, spotted the posts and contacted League President and CEO Sam Hodder. She knew he was figuring out when to debut the forest to the public, so she asked him: "Give it to me. Let me do it with a group of people from underrepresented communities."
Baker and the group of community leaders and outdoor advocates she assembled wanted to share why it's important that they are represented. The story was captured on film by The Outbound Collective for its #EveryoneOutside campaign.
"I think all too often people forget that communities of color have always been in the outdoors," Baker says. "These are people who work on these issues day in and day out, but you don't see us; we're in the background having these conversations. We're not out front. And that's the problem."
In the film, one by one the people walking among the giant trees share their thoughts:
"Being in the woods with a bunch of people of color, that's just magical." — Endria Richardson
"The more we show we're out here and that we've always been out here, the easier I certainly hope it will be for folks coming after." — Amanda Jameson
"We are standing together, holding each other up, kind of like these trees are." — Summer Winston
"The service that our parks are providing, redwoods and beyond, are fundamental to a healthy society and livable communities," Hodder says. "Reimagining how we welcome a diverse public is fundamental to that."
"I think it's important that people see us," Baker says, "they see beyond the lens they've always looked through when they see someone who cares about the oceans, the mountains, the forests — and they see me, they see José, they see Amanda..."
Watch The Outbound Collective film Here We Stand.