“Women come to the walks to be at peace with themselves, and with other people,” Sophia tells me about the members of her walking group, Bristol Steppin Sistas. The group provides opportunities for local Black women and women of colour to explore rural and open spaces in the South West of England. It does so much more than that, though. In OUR OWN PACE, we walk and talk—alongside Sophia, Diana, Sabrina, and their fellow Sista walkers—through fields, up hills and across parks. Their stories are a powerful exploration of race and gender, social isolation, individual and collective healing, and connections with nature. The Sistas show us the importance of community and self-empowerment and, above all, that being in nature should play a key part in everyone’s lives. At its own pace, Bristol Steppin Sistas makes great strides toward a more inclusive outdoor space in England.
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Tamar van Steijn (she/her) is an aspiring filmmaker and ethnographer from The Hague. With a background in sociology, international relations, and identity studies, her interests lie in the subjects of intergenerationality, youth culture, women with diasporic backgrounds, polarisation, music, and food. For her master’s thesis, she did fieldwork in Bristol for two months where she shot the ethnographic film: OUR OWN PACE.