Modern Matriarchs Skate Jam spotlights Indigenous skateboarders on the Navajo Nation: ‘Movement is medicine’
For young women in the Indigenous skateboarding community, a first-of-its-kind event on the Navajo Nation put their ramp tricks — and their wellness — center stage.
4Kinship, a Navajo (Diné) women-led sustainable artwear brand, partnered with Diné Skate Garden Project and GRLSWIRL, a female-founded skate collective, in September for the inaugural Modern Matriarchs Skate Jam. The event, held at Two Grey Hills Skate Park in New Mexico, invited Indigenous women, girls and nonbinary skaters to compete while also receiving mentorship from experienced Native skaters.
“We are a matriarchal society, and traditionally, Navajo women were the heads of their families and clans,” Amy Denet Deal, founder of 4Kinship, told In The Know by Yahoo via email. “It’s so important to encourage our young women to participate in this sport.”
Those women included skaters as young as 5 years old, who competed in the AT’ÉÉD category, which topped out at 14 years old. The next category, ASDZÁÁ, was reserved for those 15 and older.
Mentors included Rosie Archie (Secwépemc), a pro skater, community leader and Indigenous skate advocate, as well as artist and entrepreneur Di’orr Greenwood (Diné). In addition to offering coaching, the event also hosted a health and wellness village for attendees to visit and ask questions.
Skating event offers good ‘medicine’
For both Archie and Greenwood, the event represented an opportunity to not only teach the fundamentals of skateboarding but also offered the “good medicine” of community and mutual support.
“Movement is medicine,” Greenwood told In The Know via email. “What helped lead the way to helping plan for the Modern Matriarch Skate Jam was the good loving ripple effect we would create among the women in our skate community.”
The Arizona-based artist, who grew up on the Navajo Nation, shared how teaching young skateboarders how to fall “correctly” could translate into real life lessons.
“This type of mentoring (learning how to fall/fail) in skateboarding builds a positive reinforcement when it comes to the fails in skateboarding/(life),” Greenwood said. “Falling down three times and rising four times.”
‘You get to see their confidence grow’
Offering positive reinforcement to Indigenous women and girls is especially important to Archie, who grew up in a First Nations community in British Columbia, Canada, where many attended the St. Joseph Mission residential school, one of many residential schools that have come under investigation for past treatment of children.
“Our community went through really tough times. The effects and struggles of intergenerational trauma were challenging,” Archie told In The Know via email. “Skateboarding brought me something no other sport did. It kept me focused on learning and being present.”
She, in turn, wants to inspire girls and women through skateboarding, a sport that tends to be male-dominated.
“My sister and I grew up knowing what it was like to be the only girls at the park or the only Indigenous people at the park. It can be scary and intimidating,” she added.
But seeing the impact in “real time” showed Archie just how much events like the Modern Matriarchs Skate Jam can have a positive effect on youth.
“You get to see their confidence grow and just giving time and being a positive voice that tells them, ‘You can do it!’ makes a difference,” she said about the attendees.
Creating the space for skateboarding
And it wasn’t just experienced skateboarders who joined. Richelle Montoya, the first female vice president of the Navajo Nation, was also on hand to try out her skating skills.
“Richelle Montoya joined us and got on a skateboard for the first time, to show how this sport is for everyone!” Deal said.
The 4KINSHIP founder has made it her mission to provide skating opportunities to Diné youth. In addition to creating a dedicated skateboarding space through the Diné Skate Garden Project, Deal is continuing her 2023 goal of providing skating equipment to 2,030 youth on the Navajo Nation.
“Navajo Nation will have athletes competing in this Olympic sport for years to come,” she said. “We just needed to create a space for these dreams to come true.”
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(Photos courtesy of Modern Matriarchs Skate Jam)
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