As someone who is an advocate for social justice and representation in all spaces, Keyara’s passion for the outdoors and leisure activities echoes the same rhetoric.
As a Black-Indigenous-Hispanic (Barbados, Attawapiskat First Nation, Ecuador) person, Keyara’s own experiences with outdoor spaces were ones that lacked inclusion. Keyara was often outdoors in her childhood, whether it was in the garden with her grandma, on a bike ride in the forest, or in skates at the neighbourhood rink, but it was clear that the ‘big’ outdoors catered to a demographic and status that she did not fit into. However, she did not let that deter her, but rather, let it inspire her to shift the narrative.
With the pandemic, Keyara returned to the outdoors as an outlet that soon rekindled the internal desire to create a space for those with shared experiences to be able to be curious to new adventures, feel safe and have fun in their pursuit.
With Colour the Trails, Keyara strives to lean into her roots to create a space that is safe, accessible and affordable, but also a space filled with opportunities, conversation, (re)connection, reclamation, education, new possibilities & adventure.