Keweenaw Report Your Source for Local News and Sports
In an effort to promote diversity in the outdoors, the Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition has teamed up with Michigan Tech’s Center for Science and Environmental Outreach and will to host a series of presentations this the weekend on campus.
Diversity in the outdoors. What exactly does that mean? It means that outdoor adventure is something that is not shared equally amongst ethnic groups, and that’s something that two presenters are hoping to change.
Discussions began last night on the campus of MTU with James Mills, who is a black filmmaker specializing in outdoor adventure and recreation, and he encourages other minorities to get out and enjoy all that nature has to offer.
“But what he’s also highlighting is the adventure gap and if you look at a lot of photos or catalogs, it’s always promoting white people and it’s not presenting diverse people,” said Joan Chadde of MTU’s Environmental Sciences, who says that there are many questions to be answered through the presentations.
Chadde continued, “Why do we have an adventure gap? Why is it less likely that people of color are spending time outdoors? So it should be really informative for all of us.”
Chadde says that there are many reasons why minorities haven’t explored the outdoors in the past, including urban cultural barriers and the fear of the unknown.
“I can remember somebody introducing me more to the outdoors and it became a passion. But if someone never introduces it to you, you don’t even know how much you could enjoy it,” she added.
Mills will be sharing his experiences and adventures continuing today and tomorrow with a film presentation tonight at 7:30 at the Great Lakes Research Center. Chadde said, “And our second presenter is Dudley Edmondson. Dudley is in Duluth, Minnesota. He is the author of the landmark book, Black and Brown Faces in America’s Wild Places.”
Horst Schmidt of the Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition says that with an abundance of outdoor activities in the Keweenaw Peninsula, the Coalition hopes to not only promote outdoor adventure, but to attract new residents to the UP who will enjoy our outdoor activities.
Schmidt said, “We have the biking in Copper Harbor and on the hills, we have the water trails, we have our geo-heritage. So all of these things are coming on to make it more pleasant, more interesting, more exciting for people to live up here and not to look at it as a desert.”
All of the presentations are free and open to the public. More information can be found at www.mtu.edu.
