Youth in Action: Indigenous Skateboarding

How are Native youth using skateboarding as a vehicle for change and community building? Join us for a conversation moderated by Bert Correa (Taíno) with prominent Native youth skaters. Our panelists Di'Orr Greenwood (Navajo) and Cameron Schenandoah (Onyota'a:ka [Oneida], Wolf Clan) will discuss the sport’s origins, rooted in Native Hawaiian surfing, to how it’s providing opportunities for entrepreneurship, creativity, and relationship building across generations in Native communities today.

Alberto "Bert" Correa (Taíno) is a skateboard advocate and enthusiast from the Bronx. Correa is the founder and organizer of Battle for the Bronx, one of New York City's longest running skateboard contests. He is also an Education Program Specialist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.

Di'Orr Greenwood (Navajo) takes pride in her tribal community and her Diné upbringing—rooted in the cultural traditions of her Navajo people. Greenwood learned traditional arts and skills from her family, including beadwork and woodworking. A family friend admired Greenwood’s self-decorated skateboards and invested in her unique way of storytelling through the Navajo symbols and teachings rendered in her work. She began selling her work at local markets to develop her own enterprise. With proceeds from her artwork Greenwood helps to fund youth skateboard programs on the Navajo Nation Reservation. Greenwood is the first Navajo artist to be recognized with a design on a U.S. Postal Service® Forever Stamp. She crafted a skateboard from scratch then adorned the skateboard deck, the design of which is featured in one of four “Art of the Skateboard” Forever Stamps, issued in 2023.

Cameron Schenandoah (Onyota'a:ka [Oneida], Wolf Clan) is a grandchild of Oneida Wolf Clan Mother Maisie Schenandoah and grandson of Pine Tree Chief of the Beaver Clan Clifford Schenandoah. Cameron is a proud Haudenosaunee dancer, community member, and skateboarder. He has always been passionate about skateboarding since he was young and his older cousins gave him inspiration to be a skateboarder and to be himself. Schenandoah is a recent graduate of Bryant & Stratton College with a degree in Business.

Youth in Action: Conversations about Our Future is an online series hosted by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. These moderated panel discussions serve as a national platform to amplify the efforts of Native changemakers from across the Western Hemisphere who are engaged in civic and social justice work for Indigenous peoples.

This program was made possible by generous support from the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians.