We heard about Mardi Fuller from . She introduced herself as an outdoor enthusiast and shared how the 鈥渨hite colonial imagination has never created room for Black folk to enjoy Nature.鈥�
Fuller wrote: "Its systems and structures have forcibly denied us access and have created conditions to impede our ability to seek it out. The narratives birthed of white environmental ideology share none of our stories of knowing earth, sky and water.鈥�
Fuller is a volunteer leader with the chapter in Boston, and she recently completed the New Hampshire 48, climbing all 48 peaks in the state over 4,000 feet -- and she did it in winter.
In an interview with , Fuller said as a Black woman, she has a different take on the idea of 鈥渋nclusion鈥� in the outdoors. Since white people don鈥檛 own the public land, it鈥檚 not theirs to welcome other people in. Rather, people of color are the land鈥檚 co-creators and co-stewards, she said.
So Fuller encourages everyone to get outside.
鈥淒on鈥檛 be deterred from going out to explore and discover and figuring out what it is you like and how you like to do it,鈥� Fuller told NEXT. 鈥淎nd don鈥檛 be swayed if you feel that there鈥檚 one narrative that tells you that you should participate in the outdoors in a particular way because that鈥檚 just not true.鈥�
This interview was featured in a recent episode of NEXT from the New England News Collaborative. .
