I listened to the entire radio interview of Prof. Misao Dean discussed in the OP. She didn't sound that radical. Her main point was that folks should realize, when canoeing, that the canoe was used in Canada as an instrument of colonialism. My reaction: While it may literally be true that Europeans used canoes when colonizing Canada, they also used shoes, pants, shirts, axes, guns, knives, spoons, and food itself. I confess: I don't think much about centuries-old colonialism when using any of these things.
Dean's controversial three sentences seem to have been: "Certainly the majority of wilderness canoers are people who have a very privileged place in society. They’re frequently highly educated people. They’re almost completely white."
Having canoed for 70 years all over North America, the last 45 obsessively and addictively, I agree with her third sentence. I have only rarely seen Blacks or Asians canoeing, but I have always seen plenty of females because spouses and families always frequently canoed together. However, I'm not sure how "privileged" or "highly educated" the white canoeists have been. It seems to me that paddling has fairly low financial barriers to entry, especially in the age of cheap rec kayaks, and the canoeists I've met seem to have come from many different job categories and educational levels.
I also suspect there is an urban vs. suburban/rural dynamic in play. People who live in big cities, which include lots of minorities, have little exposure to daily outdoor life and literally have no place to store or work on canoes.
As to whether the WCHA should have some sort DE&I statement, I suppose that would be doable, but what would it practically accomplish in the real world of canoeing? Frankly, one can be an electronic member of the WCHA, the ACA or any other geographically dispersed digital organization, for years, and never actually meet anyone else in the organization in person, much less some non-participating group.
Moreover, I suspect that almost everyone who joins the WCHA does so either because they already own a wooden canoe or because something has caused them to have a serious interest in wooden canoes, such as already being an owner of non-wooden canoes. That means the practical, real world challenge for DE&I is not somehow to spur spontaneous minority membership in the WCHA out of the blue, but rather to get more minority non-canoers interested in canoes generally and wood canoes specifically, as a necessary prerequisite to interest in the WCHA.
One problem is this: Wood canoeing probably has the highest financial and physical barriers to paddling entry. New wood canoes are extremely expensive, and old ones are either very expensive to have professionally restored or require significant tools, experience, shop space, woodworking interest, and time. In addition, wood canoes are much heavier than comparably priced composite canoes, so are rarely a day tripper's or wilderness tripper's first choice.
Another practical problem for increasing DE&I is that most canoeists I know spend the majority of their paddling alone or with very small family or friend groups. They are usually not around stranger groups at all, whether exclusive or inclusive stranger groups. (The only poll I know of on the percentage of canoeists who paddle alone is
THIS ONE, which reports that 77% of the 69 respondents mostly, almost always, or always paddle alone.) We're all different, but, except for my whitewater days, canoeing for me has almost always been a solitary sport, whether on day trips or wilderness trips, in which I look forward to getting away from meetings, phones, politics, problems and . . . yes . . . people.
Hence, I'm not sure how to practically and effectively improve DE&I in the real world of canoeing, especially for wood canoes, as a
sine qua non prefatory step for interest in joining the WCHA.
Just some random thoughts from my personal experience, all subject to change by persuasive evidence.
