A group encouraging black women to access the countryside is changing views and changing lives. Its Bolton-based founder explains why it’s needed
Take a walk around any Lancashire town or city and you will see a huge range of people from many different backgrounds. But go for a walk in the countryside and the huge majority of the people you will see are likely to be white.
Unless you encounter a walk organised by Black Girls Hike, a non-profit group founded by Rhiane Fatinikun to promote inclusivity in the outdoors.
She started the group on a whim in 2019 and there are now groups across the country, more than 20,000 followers on social media and hundreds more people accessing the countryside.
Rhiane was born in Worsley and moved to Chorley as an eight-year-old, then to Darwen five years later. But in spite of the glorious landscapes on her doorstep, she didn’t venture out much.
‘When I lived in Darwen, all I wanted to do was move away,’ she said. ‘I felt stifled and quite resented the place. As a girl, I did lots of sports, but as a family we never did much outdoors. We were surrounded by all this countryside but we never went out into it. It just didn’t feel like it was for us.
‘My mum used to take us on car picnics where we would drive through the countryside, eat in the car, then drive home.’
In 2019 Rhiane, who now lives in Bolton, was working in the civil service for the DWP and wanted to do something to give her wellbeing a boost.
‘I was on a train in the Peak District, watching people getting on and off and going hiking and I decided I was going to start hiking,’ she said.
‘I set up an Instagram account and found a walk around Hollingworth Lake at Rochdale in the newspaper and advertised it online. We had a decent turn-out but I had no experience of organising walks, so I hadn’t had chance to recce the route or anything. I just winged it, but I managed to get everyone back.
‘It was only ever supposed to be a small meet up but it kind of exploded and people started reaching out to us to do walks in their area.
‘Our community is growing and attitudes are changing. We are giving people the confidence to go into the countryside and adventure independently and we have had some lovely feedback. We do get some surprised looks but most of the people who are out walking are there because they enjoy the countryside and they want to encourage others to enjoy it as well.’
Buoyed by the response, Rhiane arranged more walks and found a growing appreciative group of people keen to connect with the outdoors and has since left her civil service job to concentrate on the Black Girls Hike social enterprise.
‘We have a real mixture of people coming on the walks, some with absolutely no experience,’ she said. ‘A lot of black communities live in cities and don’t spend their leisure time, or their holidays, in the countryside – they often go home to Jamaica or Nigeria.
‘We wanted to create a safe space for people who don’t hiking as a pastime for them, or their community. People have a lot of reservations about entering these places and if you’re looking for something to do, it’s less likely you’ll choose to go somewhere you don’t feel your community is represented.’
But that representation is growing: there are now Black Girls Hike volunteer leaders, and groups meeting for walks, all over the country. Around 15-30 people join each walk, but some are busier than others: the first BGH walk in London attracted more than 150 people.
The Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme have approached Black Girls Hike to work with them and Rhiane was at Buckingham Palace to speak to people receiving their Gold Awards this year. Black Girls Hike received this year’s Royal Geographical Society’s Geographical Award and Rhiane has been named in the top 40 black Britons for her work. She also attended the Women of the Year lunch after being shortlisted for a 'wellness warrior' award for improving the health and wellbeing of others.
‘It is nice for your work to be recognised and it gives some extra validation to what we’re doing, but I’ve always believed in doing things for the cause, not the applause,’ Rhiane said.
‘We’re now trying to get more funding to enable us to do more work with communities and to expand the service we offer – and we intend to plan more walks in Lancashire.
‘We have also been on activity weekends to Dartmoor, Wales and the Lake District, with groups of 30 doing all sorts of activities, eating Caribbean food showing them they can enjoy the outdoors in a way they want.’
Black Girls Hike – who have 7,000 Facebook group members and 16,000 followers on Instagram –are now supported by Berghaus who want to increase their diversity and engagement. But Rhiane says there’s still a long way to go in the country
‘Black Lives Matter raised awareness and prompted some conversations but in the UK we just seem to talk about things, there’s not much meaningful movement. There is a lot of tokenism. There is not much diversity in leadership and organisations often don’t know how to interact with so-called ‘hard-to-reach' communities.
‘We have already shown how walking in the countryside can help connect people, support isolated people and improve wellbeing and health. We want to continue to do that and to make even more people feel the countryside is a safe space for them to enjoy.’
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October is Black History Month which this has the theme: ‘Time for Change: Action Not Words’. For more information and to find events happening around the country, go to blackhistorymonth.org.uk. To find out more about Black Girls Hike, visit bghuk.com.
