Hey, good evening. Welcome back to our cnn special presentation. Tonight were bringing you a presentation of all new documentary short films that reveal the search for community among diverse groups of americans. Up next, well meet a pioneering group of Black Scuba divers seeking to find and honor the more than 1 is is 00 ships and lives that was lost in the Slave Trade. Stay with us. It begins right now only on cnn. Black ie dentsity, blackness has never been confined. Has always been a movement. As good as the water that moves around you asry unusual as the water that moves around us. As deep and mysterious as our oceans. As complex. And yet, oftentimes what we are presented with are very flat and truncated History Of Africa in the african diaspora. We need complex histories. All the american public wants to hear is the american story of victory instead of the very complex history that made this country possible. The ex traction, the exploitation, the actually Death And Displacement of millions of people. Theres so many histories in the ocean that have yet to be revealed to us. Especially with ships involved in the transatlantic Slave Trade. There are a lot of ships that have gone missing. There are not a lot of documentation of where those ships are. The process of actually locating these vessels, it really comes down to whos in the water. For years,s the number of africanamerican archaeologists in this country has remained under one person. That is shifting now. Diving with a purpose shifts that. Diving with a purpose is a nonprofit organization dedicated to oceana, Conservation And Preservation of submerged heritage resources pertaining specifically to the african diaspora. I began to work with diving with a purpose, because they were documenting our history. To ensure that the truth is told. That work of uncovering these histories starts by being in the wa water. It matters who was in the water. I started out with diving to connect to my past on a different level. I cant say my lineage to my chi children. Like where am i going to tell my children . Oh, yeah, we were stolen . What does that do for the identity of someone whos trying to navigate through the world . I know for me, theres a mixture of Jealousy And Unworthiness and anger and sadness, deep profound sadness. To the point where there are times where if i meditate long enough, i can hear my ancestors screaming. I got really passionate about diving with a purpose, because the work that theyre doing is so healing. Maybe i cant tell my children my precise lineage, but i can work to find peace as a Recollective History and preserve it. Tomorrow, were actually going to a site thats dear to my heart. My very first mission with dwp. A shipwreck that was previously known as a wreck until dwp helped identify it. Now its preserved for historical record. So these are my teaching materials. This is my bag of teaching stuff. Ten minutes, check air. I do work in a maledominated industry, and diving as a whole is a white thing and while i love to not make it about those things, that is the reality. That is part of the reality. Thankfully i have colleagues like her who i can turn to, especially with regards to being a black woman in science. The history of slavery is hard to confront, but i find myself as a historic archaeologist sitting in that space quite often. I think for us to envision a vibrant future its important for us To Con Front the darkest parts of our experience. The sort of rise of african Diaspora Archaeology found in the late 60s And 70s with the rise of the black power movement. We saw the rippling of that social movement like finding its way in social sciences but theres not a rise in the number of black people who were recruited, mentored and retained and was disciplined. I feel like now with the hyper visibility of black death, with the Hyper Visible Of Black injustice in this country, the rise of the black has mattered movement more spefl, theres this new call, figuring out how we can get people connected to their history. Dwap have formed this beautiful collaboration centered on Training People Of African Descent were trained to Do Archaeology on land, to do this work underwater. So i went to meet my colleague, friend, and his family. I think that a great Scuba Instructor is someone who can see the student for who they are and also provide a sense of confidence. You see how hes watching her intently and encouraging him. Diving has been pretty much an elitist kind of recreational activity. The idea was that it was something not only glamorous but heroic and Fearlessness And Glamour and Hairism Wasnt Something that most people thought africanamericans would engage in. So in career, part of it was getting on a Boat And Nobody wanting to dive with you because they felt like you couldnt swim, and then the other part was just growing up. You couldnt even swim in a public pool because your black could come off, so when i get on a boat generally theres this distance like, ok, i dont want this guy messing up my dive. For the first dive. We the second dive, i have half the boat around me trying to figure out how do i put my gear together. How can i swim like you in the water, how do you move so easily through the water, and i end up teaching. Diver. Down here in florida, a Scuba And Yoga instructor and a Tech Instructor and people know just about everything. Lots of good energy. We met when i was first diving with a purpose. Id gotten Sea Sick on the boat. I was a new Dive Master and i hadnt really had too much experience with the conditions that we were in. I just have to ley on the bow and just ride it out the entire time. I felt like i was letting down my ancestors. It was like he was just like are you all right . He was concerned but he also had that Dad Energy like remember . Cramer is very hes very protective and hes very nurturing. Like i see something in you that you may not even see in yourself, but im going to help to uplift you, because i know you have a voice. Just such a blessing. I grew up in north new jersey, one boy with four sisters. I used to wish that i had an older brother to protect me. Softness and compassion were seen as weaknesses. You got that beat out of you if you were going to survive. Im able to now share that Compassion Ait Part of me that i rejected a long time ago. Attempting to put a more positive energy into the world. To potentially give voice to two people who were brutalized inhumanely. Everyone that is a part of dwp is in line with that mission. I started out with diving to face my fears of the water. When i was a kid i got trapped under a Jet Ski and it took me away from the water for such a long time. Growing up, i always loved being in the water. I always thought i was like a mermaid, and having that experience took me away from the water. When i decided to go Do Archaeology underwater, i was like i cant do that because im terrified of the water. I had this fear and i wanted to deal with it. [relaxed summer themed music playing] summer is a state of mind, you can visit anytime. Savor your summer with lincoln. All by yourself. You look a little lost. I cant find my hotel. Oh. Oh this is not normal. No. So . Right . Go with us and find millions of flexible options, all in our app. Expedia. It matters who you travel with. For people who are a little intense about hydration. Neutrogena® hydro boost lightweight. Fragrancefree. 48 hour hydration. For that healthy skin glow. Neutrogena®. For people with skin. On this whole journey of overcoming that fear so i could go Do Archaeology, so that i could go and make a legacy for myself. When i found dwp, they really helped me overcome my fears. So much of what were taught is that blackness and black identity is outside of humanity and a lot of the work as an archaeologist pushes against that narrative of black being outside of history, outside of something, someone worthy of study. I can trace my Familys History to the 1850s and i do this research knowing that i have seven generations of women behind me. And that roots me in the understanding of, yes, these horrors took place and there is still black life. My deepest relationships are people that are diving. Diving is a sport with its a communal sport. You always dive with a buddy. You go through all these checklists and you do it for yourself, because you do it for your buddy. Everything ive done for myself, i will then do for iana. So, for example, with the gauge, i notice that her Gauge Wasnt streamlined but its easy to thats why a Buddy Double Checking is always a good thing. Our program includes Field Schools and fullon missions. In order to document, we have to teach disciplines how that is done. The first day of training is in a Classroom Learning how to document Chip Bricks underwater. Learning mapping which is the type of documenting that were doing, teaching people how to parse the wreck and then how to document items of interest so that we can identify it. Then we take the participants to the next stage which would be outside and we set up a Mock Wreck to give them situational awareness of what it is theyre going to be doing once they hit the water. Then we take them out to the wreck site. So everyone gets in the water and swims a Survey Dive over the entirety of the wreck to get context. Once they have that context, then we provide them with either pin flags or stakes to be able to place them at the locations where theyve identified something of interest. We call them items of interest, because theyre not artifacts until the wreck has been identified and the items have been identified as on some level significant. That person who made that marker is now going to sketch the entirety of that item to scale from that marker were going to take a measurement to the baseline so that we can triangulate the exact location of that point of interest that is try latteration mapping. Anywhere in the ocean, we can pinpoint where that particularly item is located. Once we get out of the water, we go back to our Work Spaces and well draw scaled versions of our sectionings of the ship. Those scaled versions will then be Pieced Togethering to create a holistic map of that site. So there are a lot of different ways in which this work exists after the dive itself. Part of it are like the Memorial Spaces that dwp has been part of. Theres the henrietta marie. Then you have the word like south africa, right, and how the work was done at that particularly site lives in the museum of african History And Culture that shares this larger story about the transatlantic Slave Trade with actual materials from that particularly wreck that make it that much more tangible to the public. Theres been a rise in the sort of quest for finding vessels pertaining to the transatlantic trade slave. And at the very same time there are also governments at Work State to state, systematically making sure that this History Isnt taught in our k through 12s. How do those things even coexist. You know, but the materiality of that Ship Cant be denied. The existence of people, enslaved africans, who lived in those bows, who had their entire existence shifted. You cant deny it. So i feel like the role of archaeologist is to actually show the material. Thats what this work is about. Preservation is critical. Without having those remnants to tell the story, it becomes virtually impossible to tell the story. When dwp was forming, i didnt even realize that black divers existed. What my ancestors were going through seven generations ago, they could not envision where i sit today. I cant envision where my progeny will be seven generations from now. My job is to allow them to travel their path, help them figure out how to be whole. Most people have a fear of the ocean, many of them have been taught as children to stay away from the water because you could drown. Which is insane to me. As educators, the way to make children safe, you teach them how to swim. Everyones journey in the water is different. Going from snorkeling and crying my eyes out to then becoming a di diver, to then becoming a Dive Professional was just like this necessary evolution to learning to trust myself. Here i am now taking the lead on creating an entire new program for the organization. In my meditations, theres underlying Pain And Anger and fear but its not as loud as it used to be. Whether on happened on under water, archaeology, historically has not been inclusive of black or brown people. Theres a way that history itself is often told by those in spaces of privilege and power. You can see in this country based on whats memorialized, whats commemorated, the histories that this country value, and you can see that the struggle to actually state the truth around the History Of African diaspora people here in this country. Thats not the center of the american america. So when africanamerican, when black people do this work, when black people center those stories, they completely shift the lens around how were talking about the history of the present and the future of this country. And it is important for black people to uncover their history and for young children to see an image of black people, of black women doing this work. Its just light and maybe theyll think i can do this or i can do anything. Water is shift ing. Val valuable. Water is fluid. Water is complex. Water is Refuge Water is life. Water is nourishment. Water is of us always. Water is home. Guess what famous an