June is Great Outdoors Month, and native Austinite Tanya Walker will certainly be celebrating. Maybe you’ll find her exploring the subterranean silence of Central Texas’ intricate cave systems. Or perhaps she’ll be whizzing along a live-oak-studded trail on a galloping horse. But more often than not, you’ll find Walker on the water, in a kayak. “I want everybody to feel what I feel when I’m out there on Town Lake,” she says. “You cannot see the true beauty of Austin driving – you have to be on the water to see it and appreciate it.” And yet, even while finding peace out on the water, something was missing. “It was rare that I would see somebody else of color out there with me,” she said.
So, in 2018, Walker started a group called Black Women Who Kayak+ (BWWK+) to support and encourage Black outdoor recreation. It was a bit of a rocky start; Walker struggled to get people at her initial events. “At one point I was actually going to shut the group down,” she said. But then she realized she needed to address the “barriers and myths that have been deeply rooted for Black and brown people” around outdoor recreation.
“Some of those barriers are the fear of not knowing how to swim and the fear of big bodies of water,” she said. So Walker connected with the British Swim School to offer swimming lessons to folks interested in joining BWWK+.
She also decided to expand BWWK+ programming; that’s where the “+” in BWWK+ came in. “We needed to be in more than just one space,” she said, “to create welcoming environments implementing diversity and inclusiveness in every space.”
BWWK+ puts the focus on women of color, especially mothers. “We’re planting a seed of curiosity in the mom, because it takes a mom [feeling] comfortable, confident, and welcomed before she will say, ‘Hey, I’m going to bring my loved ones next time.’ … A lot of these ladies, it’s their first time ever kayaking. It’s basically opening up a whole other realm of curiosity where they know they can do this because they see other women who look like them doing it.
BWWK+ has grown since 2018: Walker recently purchased a fleet of kayaks to use for BWWK+ events, and new chapters are popping up across the country. “One of the things that I want to accomplish with BWWK+ is that I want us everywhere,” she said.
Expansion takes time, but BWWK+ isn’t slowing down: Two members are taking off on an eight-day Alaskan backpacking trip this August. The nonprofit group NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) reached out to sponsor a BWWK+ member, and Kimberley Fields won the opportunity. “When I got that call that I’d won, I was ugly crying. I could not believe it, I was speechless,” Fields said.
Yet Walker knew Fields would likely be the only person of color on the expedition. “I didn’t want that for her, I wanted her to experience something of this magnitude with someone who looks like her,” she said. So BWWK+ raised funds for a second member to attend the upcoming adventure. Fields said it makes a difference. “I do appreciate that if I’m feeling uncomfortable, I’m glad there is someone I can talk to.”
BWWK+ has been supported by many partners and sponsors, and Walker said she sees business owners opening their eyes to environments that feel exclusive. “We’re all chiseling away trying to make a difference to show that Black and brown people do kayak, and hike, and cycle, and wakeboard – we do it all.”
This article appears in June 10 • 2022.