ÎYÂRHE NAKODA – Skateboarding changed Lewis Kootenay’s life.
In June, a botched 50-50 – a trick he’d landed countless times before, put him on life support for nine days.
Not long after his 30th birthday, the Mînî Thnî skater – affectionately known to most as Lew – broke his head open on the unforgiving pavement of Calgary’s Shaw Millennium Park. He was there to grind rails and hit tricks with Cousins Skateboarding Community – a non-profit group empowering Indigenous youth through the sport.
“All I remember is waking up, and my last memory was going to the skate park,” said Kootenay, shedding his hat to reveal a four-inch scar across the back of his skull. “I don’t remember how I crashed. I just remember going there with my brother and Cousins was gonna be there.”
Smiling, Kootenay looked toward the Chiniki Skate Spot, a place where the sounds of wheels rolling, soles slapping the pavement and laughter washes out the constant hum of traffic on the nearby Trans-Canada Highway.
“I feel extremely, extremely grateful,” he said of recovering from the accident. “I’m more appreciative of everything – of skateboarding, of being around all these kids’ energy. I can feel their energy.”
A cool fall wind blows through the Bow Valley. It’s a Wednesday night at the local skate spot in Mînî Thnî. The pizza is warm and pop flows forever for skaters young and old.
Tucked discretely into the trees behind the Stoney Nakoda and Kananaskis RCMP detachment, the small, unassuming concrete slab known as the Chiniki Skate Spot has become a skateboarding hot spot in recent years.
“Skateboarding was always alive and well here,” said Mark Kaquitts, a resident of Mînî Thnî and member of Îyǎrhe (Stoney) Nakoda First Nation. “We just needed a place where we could come together.”
Very modest in size, with a handful of portable features that are 20-plus years old, most wouldn’t call it a skate spark. But the act of gathering there is less about skateboarding and more about community-building anyway.
“Whoever thought there’d be 30-40 kids hanging out next to the RCMP detachment? It’s a beautiful thing,” said Stuart Young, executive director of Cousins, which runs programming at the park on Wednesdays. “You can see it, but more than that you can feel it when you go there.”
The spot has become a semi-permanent home to mobile equipment offered by Cousins to Indigenous communities and events as access to safe features and spaces to skate aren’t often available.
About two years ago, asphalt was laid for the Chiniki Skate Spot with the intent of first creating a basketball court, but that idea changed when local chiefs and council learned the Town of Banff had skate park equipment it no longer needed.
Kaquitts, who grew up in Mînî Thnî, is passionate about skateboarding and growing the sport in his community. He reached out to Cousins to help supplement what equipment was received from Banff, and to invite Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples to come out and ride through the non-profit’s growing following.
Like Kootenay, he said skateboarding has been transformative to his life, and he aims to pass that on to others.
“Skateboarding, when I picked it up ... I can only explain the feeling in my culture, but it’s like a war shield for me,” Kaquitts said.
“You wear a war shield in battle to protect you from attacks. Spiritually, it kind of saved me from falling too far into the wrong crowds and the wrong habits.”
Kaquitts didn’t have access to anywhere but the street to skate in his younger years, which is part of the beauty of its accessibility. But now, his 18-year-old son, Riley, can also hit the ramps with ease.
“That’s one of our inspirations is to bring skateboarding to these kids so they don’t have to drive to the next town or spend a bunch of time driving to skateboard for one or two hours,” said Kaquitts. “They can get here easily. They can be picked up and dropped off easily, and they can spend the whole day.”
In August, Riley won a silver medal in the senior division at the inaugural skateboarding competition at the Alberta Indigenous Games, which was hosted in partnership with Cousins.
The avid skater doesn’t skate exclusively in Mînî Thnî but said having somewhere to practice more regularly played a big role in his result at the Games. So did having people in his corner.
“It was only my second time in competition, and it was pretty nerve-racking. But since I literally had all my skateboarding friends there, I had the confidence to be better and do the best I could,” said Riley, who is becoming a well-known figure in the skate community among other Îyârhe Nakoda greats like Tyree Wildman and River Holloway.
The recent Canmore Collegiate High School grad grew up watching his dad and uncle Wendel freewheeling around Mînî Thnî and trying to practice tricks where they could.
“I think it just opens it up more,” said Riley, of having better access to a safe space to skate. “A lot of kids here started skating because some older figure in their life, like a brother or a mentor, got them into it. But not everyone has that, so having a place they can just come and try helps a lot.”
Kootenay, who nearly lost his life just months before but is happily able to hop on a skateboard again, said he’s proud to see how many kids come out each week from Mînî Thnî and surrounding communities and called the work they’re doing “just the beginning.”
“It’s only going to go uphill,” he said. “There’s so much goodness here.”
Young told the Outlook that by this time next year, Cousins hopes to have started construction on a full skate park at the Chiniki Skate Spot, with permission from local chiefs and council. He said they have permission from Chiniki First Nation.
Canadian Tire’s Jumpstart program, has been a “huge supporter” of the non-profit, Young added, and it’s committed to being “a significant partner in the project.”
“Communities thrive when people can feel free to be themselves,” said Young. “We celebrate individuality while also celebrating the things we have in common.”
“You don’t have to be anything here. You don’t even have to skateboard. That’s not the point.”
The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada. The position covers Îyârhe (Stoney) Nakoda First Nation and Kananaskis Country.
