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Apache Youth Reclaim Their Story Through Skateboarding | Short Film Showcase


3m read
·Nov 11, 2024

[Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Here in San Carlos, you can't just jump on the train, jump on a subway, jump on a light rail, and go to the multiplex. I think sometimes Native adults have said, "Oh, Native kids, they're losing their culture." They haven't really lost anything; they just want access to goods and services like everyone else. Just open the shop, come check it out.

Patchy agency means a lot, you know. It's a hub for the skaters here. The younger generation is the key. You got to psych them up, get them motivated again. Hype—that's the key to the future.

The Apache team: Doug, Trey, Elijah, P, Reuben, Irwin, Tasha, Rozelle, Keith. The ones that are not here, the new members, they're heavy cats. They didn't get good by accident; they got good on purpose. They're the ones out on the street, getting bloody, getting tore up. But they're the ones also smoking out kids and teaching kids, you know. It's cool, and it's fun to skate—fun to be yourself.

[Music] [Applause] My great-grandmother, whom is still alive, had to endure such a tremendous amount of pain for me to even live. And then that pain followed to my mother. It could have followed me, but it didn't. Wherever you're from, it's not gonna dictate where you're going. I think that's why it's really moving for me to connect my culture with, you know, my skateboard culture.

Because I realized that there's a rich, pungent aura that I'm supposed to carry, to transfer, to touch the little girl's heart that needs it, and that needs to get told, "Hey, you're special; you're gonna change the world." I am my ancestors, and the walking and embodiment of everything that they were—do they are. If I don't walk in the path that's been put before me, then I'm not fulfilling the path that they wanted me to fulfill in the first place.

When I see little artists' hands, I see the hands of artists. I'm looking at my own lineage and mortality, and when a minute he touches my hand and my hand touches his, he's touching eternity. That's why grandparents have such a great love for their grandkids—he's me 53 years ago; I'm him 53 years from now.

[Music] So in tumultuous political times, it's good to unplug, take a step back, and look around you. Look at the family that you have. Look at the friends that you have. Go visit your neighbor; go take some food to your mom. Go chop wood for your dad. Go help someone and don't put it on social media. Don't tell everybody what you did because when you do those things, here you're helping your world.

The greatest leaders have always been the most generous leaders. They've given, and some leaders, some of the greatest leaders, give their life. Why did I decide to spend my last 30 years working for young people in my community? I want young people to live. I want young people to see their own potential, and I want my community to go into the next century strong, bold, and courageous.

My art took me to the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco, to do work with friends in the South Bronx, to the hallowed halls of Columbia University. But I stay here in San Carlos to birth an important skateboard brand here on the rest you.

[Music]

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