Rhiane Fatinikun: Founder of Black Girls Hike is spreading empowerment in the outdoor community

Interview: Tom Warburton

The lack of diversity is an issue in the outdoors community. Many groups feel disconnected and excluded from the outdoor community. Tom from Dure Magazine caught up with Rhiane Fatinikun the founder of Black Girls Hike, who aim to break down barriers in the outdoors. 

Hi, tell us a little about yourself?

My name is Rhiane Fatinikun, I'm 34, born and raised in the North West, I’m the founder of Black Girls Hike, a non-profit organisation, that promotes inclusivity in the outdoors.

Black girls hike has grown hugely over the last few years, how did it start?

It started on a whim, I was on the train to the Peak District, I had been wanting to find something to do in my spare time. I saw loads of hikers who were getting on and off the train, it sprung from there really.

There is a back story to wanting to find something to do, a few years ago, I was in a car accident. I was nearly run over, it was a near-death experience with the video of the incident going viral “pedestrian cheats death”. After the crash, I developed anxiety. I had an office job at the time, I would wake up and worry that I wasn’t doing something with my life, it was really stressing me out. It took me a while to realise I had to do something. Eventually, I was diagnosed with PTSD as well, it was really serious, but I didn’t really want to admit it. After I started hiking, I didn’t feel like I was wasting my life and I don’t have the same worries.

Diversity is an issue in the travel industry, how does the industry need to change to become more inclusive.

I think it needs to start from the top down. Recently there has been a lot of tokenism, a lot of black and brown faces in adverts, that’s not representative. These people who have worked in these organisations have never cared before.

The right conversations aren’t being made, because they don’t have the capacity to have the right conversations. They just don’t have the right people to engage with these communities.

There is another issue with trustees in major outdoor organisations. There are hundreds of outdoor’s organisations in the UK, of the boards that make up their leadership, there’s only a handful of black people.

You recently started on Countryfile, your appearance saw a number of complaints, do you think a problem with the outdoors industry is its reluctance to change

I think it’s a reluctance to change and a lack of education. The complaints show there is a problem, organisations do want to change, but you get the impression that they don’t know-how. That’s where top-down change will work.

There’s a lot of organisations who know how to change on a strategic level, Mosaic, they’re outdoors consultants who are doing great work to try and bring about change.

With the covid pandemic restricting a lot of outside travelling, how is the group overcoming this issue? 

So we have a Facebook group, you can go on there and find a local buddy, the restrictions still allow you to exercise with one person outside your own household.

When we were in tiers, we were allowed to be in a group up to 30, this worked really well with us still running a lot of hikes.

We do have a community, it’s great to see we have loads of groups chats. Its more than a walking group now, it’s a community. The girls all to support each other, one of the girls in the group, created a google document off her own back. It’s allowed members to find a walking buddy close to their location, providing that support during lockdown, she didn’t have to do that.

There was always an aim to build some kind of community, which I think we have done so well. During COVID, the community has worked so well. We’ve been able to support and look after each other.

What’s been the most rewarding thing whilst out and about with your group?

I think its basically introducing people to the outdoors. It’s a completely new experience for a lot of people, its been amazing to see how it builds people’s confidence and improves their mental health. Facilitating that has been really rewarding.

Once we were out in the Peak District. We were walking up this hill a big group of us, this black guy walking down hadn’t seen so many black people hiking! The look on his face and his reaction was amazing.

On our first walk in London in Epping forest, over a hundred people turned up. I walked out of the tube I was just amazed by how many people were there. As we were walking through the forest, people had never seen so many black people walking. People kept stopping and asking if we were going to a protest!

Getting any group started can be difficult, what was the biggest challenge with getting Black Girls Hike started?

The biggest challenge I found was accepting my role as a leader. I never saw myself as the leader of the group, I started the group really as just a few mates who liked going wandering. Then on a hike, I got us lost on the Moors in Oldham! It kind of clicked then I’m responsible for people, I can’t keep getting us lost! After that, I went on a map reading course to give myself more confidence.

Another challenge was learning how to deal with all the different type of people, it can be difficult to juggle how to ensure that everyone is happy.

One of the biggest challenges I found was organising. I never realised how difficult it can be. As the group has grown it’s become much harder to organise stuff!

Black Girls Hike is now the face of outdoor brand Berghaus, how did that come about and do you think this will help encourage people from a more diverse background into the outdoors industry. 

I hope so, Berghaus are a very genuine brand. We’ve worked with them for the last 18 months, they’ve been with us from the start. We did a photoshoot with them for their spring/summer 2020 campaign. They’ve been invaluable and really helped us grow.  They’ve supported us with a kit, and given us a lot of exposure. They’re a brand that does genuinely care.

A lot of brands at the moment have just been putting black people in campaigns. Berghaus are supporting people at a grass routes level, providing funding and really supporting us. So many brands reached out to us last year during the BLM protests. It was so transparent they only reached out for a bit of tokenism.