Episode 1: Noami Grevemberg (she/her)

AD: Belonging is a four-part Outside Voices mini-series created in partnership with Merrell. Merrell believes in sharing the simple power of being outside. They provide innovative, thoughtfully designed footwear and apparel products that enable anybody to pick up their gear and feel adventurous, confident, and ready to enjoy the outdoors.

Noami: through diversify van life, I feel like I have a sense of community, like I have a community. And this is since leaving my country and living in America, it's the first time in my life that I feel like I belong to a community. And it's just so purposeful, and so powerful. And I can show up authentically, I don't have to pretend to be something else.

[INTRO] Sarah: You’re listening to Outside Voices Podcast. We’re using our Outside Voices to redefine what it means to spend time outside and connect to nature. I’m your host, Sarah Shimazaki. Let’s get started.

Sarah-Narration: Welcome to our first-ever (hopefully first of many!), Outside Voices podcast mini-series. “Belonging” features four individuals who identify as immigrants or first-generation, and shares stories about their personal and cultural connections to the outdoors. As many of you know, during this first week of July, Canada Day on July 1st and American Independence Day on the 4th are recognized as federal holidays. Here at Outside Voices, we’re celebrating everybody’s right to find belonging outside, and also challenging and redefining notions of what it means to be “outdoorsy,” or quote unquote “American,” or “Canadian”. As someone who is a child of immigrants, -my mom is from the Philippines, dad is from Japan- was born in America but spent five years of my childhood in Japan, it brought me so much joy to hear stories from people whose ancestors immigrated from countries, pretty much all around the world. First up, I got the opportunity to chat with Noami Grevemberg.

Noami: my name is Noami and I'm an eco van lifer and digital nomad. I've been living on the road in my 1985 Volkswagen vanagon with my partner and my pup since 2016. 

Sarah-Narration: You may know Noami from her Instagram handle @IrieToAurora (where, p.s, she posts beautiful photos from her van and is an INCREDIBLE writer) as a podcast co-host of Nomads at the Intersections, or the founder of Diversify Vanlife, which she started in response to the lack of representation of Black, Indigenous, and people of color in the road travel community. Over the last few years, Diversify Vanlife has evolved from a social media platform into a movement, to increase representation and create safe spaces for people like Noami in the road travel community.

Noami: I am from a multi ethnic background. My mother is of East Indian descent and my father is a descendant of African slaves. I immigrated to the US when I was 17 years old and I became a US citizen in 2013. So I am first generation.

I grew up in a tiny fishing village in a rainforest on the southeastern coast of the island of Trinidad. And my earliest memories are waking up to the eerie sounds of howler monkeys outside my bedroom window, running barefoot in the jungle with my brothers fishing and swimming into rivers hunting and foraging for food, hiking to waterfalls and Mud Volcanoes. But we never call it hiking. You know, it was just life. You know, we were kids playing outside. I remember spending hours in the jungle every day, during the August school break. Climbing giant trees, eating fruits like mangoes and wild plums, naming all of the colorful birds and monkeys like that was a game I had with my brothers. And sometimes I would just sit quietly on a branch in the tree just waiting for, you know, a bird to go by or monkey to swing past. 

Honestly, my whole life in Trinidad, I didn't really see it as outdoorsy per se. I mean, it was life for us

my family on my father's side, they were-- they are-- were and are fishermen. And that was really important to them, experiencing life through, you know, the eyes of a fisherman, is how I built my deep connection to the ocean. My father was a fisherman when he was 10 years old. And he spends most of his life out there on the ocean. I remember my stepfather had tons of fishing boats, and my uncles and cousins, and you know, everyone would go out fishing, and that's how we ate. That's how we survive. And that really stuck with me. And now on my travels anywhere in the world, whenever I'm near the ocean, it's like I'm home.

And also, my mother, right? I'm my mother's daughter, I come from a very long line of strong women who didn't really have the privilege of living a life indoors. My mother and my grandmother were the first eco conscious minimalists I ever knew, though we didn't have those terms for it, we were poor. So for us, it was just, you know, living and surviving. And they taught me everything that I need, could be found in nature. We would strip coconut coir to make like cleaning and scrubbing pads, we would bind palm fronds into brooms, we grew up with food, we would harvest wild honey and forage for herbs and ground provisions. And they instilled in me the importance of sustainability and living in harmony with the natural world, only taking what I needed to survive and giving back to the land and to our neighbors. But again, we didn't use terms like sustainability, you know what I mean? it was just a matter of having respect for the land, for each other. And building community was a really big part of that. So I guess looking back, there was just no way that I wouldn't have a strong connection to nature, and a deep love for the outdoors. And for that I'm really grateful.

Sarah- Narration: When Noami was 17 years old, she left Trinidad and immigrated to New York City in pursuit of big dreams in the big city.

Noami: there was really no opportunities for a girl like me growing up poor in a rural village in Trinidad. You know, there was no college, no career and my future. So I guess when I had the opportunity to come to America and pursue quote, unquote, the American dream, I kind of took it. You know, what, I guess more accurately, I created the opportunity and just charged forward full steam ahead, but then I came to America in pursuit of like the big city life, the big dreams. And I was really dazzled by that. So naturally, I got caught up in the capitalist, consumerist mindset of success and happiness and what that looks like. And, you know, it was the opposite to how I grew up. So I was disconnected from nature for more than, I guess, half of my adult life here in America. And it wasn't until college when I started taking environmental classes. And, just for clarity, I went back to college as an adult student. But that was where I started reconnecting with nature in these environmental classes where I had the opportunity to, like, go outdoors and be in nature and take samples and study trees and plants, and, you know, all of that. And it kind of brought me back to a place of equilibrium. It was like, I was off balance for a while, trying to reconcile, like two very different lives, my childhood in nature and my adult life in the concrete jungle. But things started to shift, you know, my perspective. And I quickly realized that there was no life for me, that didn't involve the outdoors.

Sarah-Narration: As Noami began reclaiming her connection to nature, she noticed that the culture around spending time in the “great outdoors” here in America looked drastically different from her childhood in the jungles of Trinidad. 

Noami: In America, the outdoors is very white, with a lot of these unwritten rules of how you're supposed to quote unquote, do the outdoors.

growing up in Trinidad, it's like, we didn't have all this gear, we didn't need those things. It was just us, connecting with nature. There weren't all these rules of how you're supposed to show up. And I feel like when I first started experiencing nature here, like going backpacking, my first backpacking trip, you know, I bought this cheapo backpack. And, you know, my partner and I, we started doing it together. And we showed up to I think it was the Smoky Mountains, via the Appalachian Trail. And there were just throngs of, you know, these outdoorsy people, and everyone just look so professional, and people were looking at us, like, What the hell are y'all doing? And I think on the trail on the Appalachian Trail, we got a lot of, you know, people telling us how to do the outdoors, and that was kind of a disappointment. And to be honest with you, I felt like I didn't want to experience the outdoors after that. But it was my partner who was like, No, if this is something that you want to do, we're going to do it. So I had to deal with that kind of learning curve that I wasn't doing it right. Because everyone else looked so professional with all the fancy gear and all of that and I just showed up as myself and it wasn't good enough. 

Sarah- Narration: This idea of “Belonging,” which is the title of our mini-series, can hold so many different meanings, depending on who you ask. For Noami, an immigrant, a multiracial outdoorist, a digital nomad, she’s spent a lot of time thinking about her sense of belonging and what home means.

Noami: Even growing up in my country, I feel like I struggled with my sense of belonging as well, due to a lot of intergenerational traumas, and you know, being poor, things like that. And I think, over the years, I've come to redefine what that means to me.

I think for a long time I kind of struggled with, you know, these external identities and what it meant, my sense of self worth in a way. And it was based off of these external identities, like going to college, pursuing a career, you know, that was really important to me, because it wasn't any opportunities that any young girls like me had growing up in Trinidad in my village. So it was a big deal. And I put a lot of, I guess, a lot, I gave a lot -- too much -- to these external identities of becoming successful and being an environmental scientist, you know, like, my self worth was tied to these things, and then I got on the road. And spending so much time in nature really allowed me to come face to face with a lot of what these issues were, and looking inward, and realizing that my sense of self worth is inside of me, you know, it has nothing to do with these external factors. And that really shifted my sense of belonging and what home means. And that's wherever I am. And through this, I've been able to really build some strong and empowering connections with virtual communities. And I think, through Diversify Van Life, the first time on the road, I feel like I have a sense of community, like I have a community. And this is since leaving my country and living in America, it's the first time in my life that I feel like I belong to a community. And it's just so purposeful, and so powerful. And I can show up authentically, I don't have to pretend to be something else. And there's no expectation or identity that I need to live up to. And that has been just truly impactful for me on my journey. And I feel like myself again. 

In nature, I've been able to really ask myself hard questions. You know, nature doesn't judge. So it's really been impactful in helping me reconnect with myself. I feel like when I first came to America, I wasn't just disconnecting from nature, I was disconnecting from everything from the hard life that I had in Trinidad and a lot of trauma. So I feel like I just, you know, put it all behind me. By embracing a life that was the complete opposite. But when I find when I was able to finally rediscover nature, and allowed myself to embrace it, all of those things, kind of just, you know, the things that I put in the back or stuff down, kind of just came back, the good, the bad, all the traumas, all the teachings all of that just rush back to the surface. And, you know, in nature, I feel like by allowing myself I found the answers that I was looking for And I learned that I don't have to, to carry all of this, all of the burdens of my past, all of the intergenerational traumas, I don't have to carry it, all of it, I get to choose what I want to take with me and what I want to let go. So I was able to just recreate my life without losing my core values without giving up all the beautiful lessons from my grandmother and my mother, and all those traditions and teachings from generations of my ancestors, you know, coming to Trinidad. I just feel like it's been so healing for me. And for the first time in my life, I feel like man, I can't wait to go back to my country and immerse myself in nature there and just experience that all over again, because I get to decide how I want to show up in that space.

Sarah- Narration: So Noami and I have been following each other on Instagram for some time, but we’ve never spoken to each other before, either in-person or virtually, so as we were talking, I told her, that she speaks exactly how she writes, which beautifully. And so thoughtfully. And if you want know what I mean, you definitely need to follow her on Instagram, which is At Eye-ree To Aurora, where she is redefining outdoorsy everyday from her van.

Noami: These days redefining outdoorsy is my office outside. Parking my van somewhere in nature and just writing a lot, because I'm writing a book, I don't know if I mentioned that earlier. And it has consumed my life. But I'm grateful that like I said, I've been able to create a career that allows me to be outside. But redefining outdoorsy for me is Diversify Van life. It's Black people outside in nature, hiking, camping, taking up space, breaking stigmas, and busting stereotypes. It's breaking down barriers that infringe on people's freedoms, you know, especially those barriers that, they want to fit into this whitewashed narrative out of like, quote unquote outdoorsy. But I feel like it really comes down to unlearning what we are taught is the standard and creating space for different narratives for people to feel safe enough to show up authentically. Because like I said, I shared an experience earlier, of my first time in the outdoors, I did not feel safe to show up authentically, I felt like I had to live up to the standard, this whitewash standard of what it means to be outdoorsy. So creating those safe spaces and unlearning these standards, I feel like it's so important in how we redefine outdoorsy. My way anyway.

[OUTRO]

Thank you so much to Noami for all your work and everything you do to diversify the road travel community, for gracing us with your beautiful words, and for offering your time and energy with us all at Outside Voices.

Our beautiful logo and cover art was designed by Brooklyn Bell and this lovely music you hear at the beginning and end of every episode was performed by Olivia VanDamme and produced by Jamison Blue Stegmaier

All credits, links and resources can be found on our website: outsidevoicespodcast.com

You can also follow us on Instagram, @OutsideVoicesPodcast

Outside Voices Podcast is a project by Resource Media. “Belonging” is a mini-series made in partnership with Merrell.

Until next time. 

AD: Special thanks again, to our friends at Merrell, for partnering with us on Belonging, a mini-series featuring immigrants and their relationships to the outdoors. Merrell believes that no matter who you are, where you come from, who you love or how you move — Everyone should be welcome in the outdoors and wherever life takes us.