Skateboarding and Indigenous teaching at Crestwood School

“I’m from Atakakoop First Nation, so I’m Cree, Métis, but also Scottish, so I call it one shoe, one moccasin, right, where it’s like, hey, my grandpa plays the bagpipes, he’s Scottish, you know,” Young said.

“My Kookum (Grandmother) and my Cree family are very much Cree, and it’s beautiful to be the product of those two things, right?”

Young presented with others from the organization to Crestwood School, in a National Day for Truth and Reconciliation event ahead of the official day next Monday.

He says skateboarding fits well with teaching.

“So we can get kids engaged about culture, not just Indigenous culture, but about their culture, about reconciliation, and so reconciliation isn’t just a word they hear growing up.”

Young said they look to help people learn about culture, their part in it, participating and feeling like we belong together.

Almina Basara, a Grade 4 student, said she enjoyed how they were learning in an entertaining way.

“My favourite things are like, how the pow wow people dance. All the dancing stuff. And I love about, like how they do cool tricks on the skateboards,” Basara said.

Young said skateboarding helps keep the kids engaged while teaching.

“Culture and skateboarding and Indigenous culture is like this beautiful marriage that we didn’t even really know until we started being like, like bringing them together,” Young said.

“It was natural. In skate culture art is like, it’s skating, but it’s also this culture of like wearing a shirt of having like, not to be cool. It’s not like that. It’s more expression.”

Nixon Heninger, a Grade 6 student, said he enjoyed seeing the Indigenous art, but was also drawn to the skateboarding.

“It’s awesome because I’ve never done skateboarding before, so it’s going to be a new thing for me.”

During the day the children were able to watch skateboarding, participate in dancing and drumming, and completes some crafts and knowledge sharing.

Young said that being able to share helps him and other Indigenous members heal.

“People talk about residential schools and talk about these things in statistics. But for me, it’s not a statistic. It’s a real life,” Young said.

“It’s for many people. It’s even for all of us, it’s real life,” he added.

“So healing, this is part of healing.”

Young said it’s about getting a group of people together and moving forward, but also not forgetting about the past.

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by Jesse Gill

Skateboarding and Indigenous teaching at Crestwood School

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