The Brave Space Project is gearing up to release ‘Expedition Reclamation,’ a film by BIWOC for everyone, this summer. The goal? ‘Expanding access to the stoke.’
“Expedition Reclamation” is a short documentary by the Brave Space Project, a multiracial, women-led storytelling and community-building team on a mission to redefine “outdoorsy” and help restore belonging in the outdoors for Black, Indigenous, and women of color (BIWOC).
“If there’s one goal we have, it’s a paradigm shift,” said Sanjana Sekhar, an Indian-American filmmaker behind the documentary. “It’s changing what is mainstream in our culture. It’s not about erasing the stories that exist, [it’s] about adding to it. When we say ‘everyone counts,’ we’re not diluting what it means to be dope in the outdoors. We’re just expanding access to the stoke.”
The Brave Space Project: The Film
The Brave Space Project was founded by Chelsea Murphy of She Colors Nature and Erin Joy Nash, a visual storyteller. The goal of the project is to bring more representation of BIWOC to outdoor media.
“Expedition Reclamation” follows 12 Washington-based BIWOC as they explore their joyful, resilient, and transformative relationships to outdoor recreation. After being tagged in an Instagram post calling for any BIWOC in the outdoors to be a part of this film project, Sekhar sprang into action to work with the initiative to diversify the outdoors.
“Women [are] snowboarding, paddleboarding, canoeing, swimming, hiking, snowshoeing, climbing, and more,” she said. “We also have a lot of footage of women outside praying and greeting nature. We want to show that the climbing is as beautiful and as important as the girl who is at the waterfall, telling the waterfall her name and the name of her ancestors.”
By showing that there are just as many ways of going out into nature as there are people, “Expedition Reclamation” stands at the forefront of decolonizing the outdoor space.
“Oftentimes when we think of DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion], we think of how to bring color into a white space. But I think DEI always has to start with, ‘How do you empower the community that has been systematically disenfranchised?’ Once you do that, now you can talk about bringing it to white spaces,” said Sekhar.
“We don’t talk enough about fostering a sense of confidence and belonging in communities that have been stripped of their legitimacy, through systems that were designed to do exactly that,” she continued.