Navajo youth brush up on skateboarding skills during Modern Matriarch Skate Jam

TWO GREY HILLS — Approximately two dozen young skateboarders got the chance to learn basic skills or pick up some new ones during the opening session of the Modern Matriarch Skate Jam at the Two Grey Hills Skate Park on the Navajo Nation.

The two-day event started Friday and was billed as the first sporting event ever held on the reservation that was run exclusively by Diné women and targeted for Navajo girls. It was scheduled to culminate on Saturday with a competitive event. But on Friday, the atmosphere was all about cooperation and exposing Navajo youngsters — both boys and girls — to the joys of the sport.

Diorr Greenwood, who grew up on the Navajo Nation in Sawmill, Arizona, before relocating to Los Angeles, where she works as a woodworking artist and teaches skateboarding, was one of the organizers of the event.

She said Friday’s opening session was designed to break the ice with local youngsters so they would feel more at home. A movie-and-pizza event was scheduled for that evening at the Tohaali Community School Auditorium.

Greenwood said she and the other organizers were hoping to work with approximately 150 youngsters by the time the weekend was over. Her fellow organizer Lucy Osinski of GrlSwirl, a woman-founded skate collective in Venice, California, said their goal was not just to get those young people hooked on skateboarding, but to raise $75,000 so they could purchase a skateboard and helmet for every young person within a 50-mile radius of Two Grey Hills. That comes out to more than 2,000 skateboards, Osinski said.

Osinski said GrlSwirl has been doing skateboarding mentorships for a several years in Los Angeles and Mexico, and she said she was pleased to add New Mexico to that list on Friday. She said it was Greenwood — who showed up at a GrlSwirl competition in Venice and dusted the competition — who suggested they hold an event on the Navajo Nation.

Osinski said she was overwhelmed by the beauty of the Navajo Nation and the kindness of its people during her first visit to the reservation. And while she split her time between working with boys and girls during Friday’s skateboarding clinic — during which novice participants were taught the fundamentals of the sport while advanced boarders learned how to ride a surf-skateboard — she said the focus of the weekend was to demonstrate to the Indigenous girls the power they have as women.

Osinski, a one-time ballerina who said she used to be terrified of skateboards, now does everything she can to interest young girls in boarding.

“It is one of the most transformative toys or tools you can have,” she said. “It gave me an identity, a direction, a community, a sense of belonging. Anybody who steps on a skateboard can get those things.”

Peyton Alex, another organizer of the event who created the artwork that was used on the fliers, also grew up on the Navajo Nation in Arizona. She said skateboarding is an ideal pursuit for young people who grow up in isolated communities like Two Grey Hills because, aside from the initial investment required for a board and a helmet, it’s something they can do year round.

“It’s new outlook for people, especially in a community that’s rural, and there’s not much to do,” she said.

The Modern Matriarch Skate Jam also was organized by 4KINSHIP, an Indigenous fashion brand. To donate to the fund being used to purchase the skateboards and helmets, text GOSKATE to 707070.

Mike Easterling can be reached at 505-564-4610 ormeasterling@daily-times.com. Support local journalism with a digital subscription: http://bit.ly/2I6TU0e.