Skate sculpture render. Image by Dr Sanne Mestrom.
Skateboarding is a subculture engaging youth and adults on the margins while also now an Olympic Sport where skaters can reach their full potential yet can still be stereotyped. In the past, skateparks and spots have also traditionally been 'quarantined' to areas that are isolated, lack creative elements for a range of users, and neglect questions of spatial justice, sustainability and the environment. In less progressive cities, skateboarding and other creative sports like roller skating and parkour can also be 'off-limits' for urban play, with these activities often misunderstood and banned in public spaces such as plazas and where young people and all kinds of active communities could otherwise gather and thrive.
This panel ‘flips the script’ by highlighting how skateboarding can become a vibrant part of often under-used landscapes, creating unexpectedly safer, lively, and joyful public spaces that enhance social connection, personal confidence, health and well-being, advancement of physical skills and a canvas for creativity. In contemporary times, worldwide, cities like Bordeaux in France, Malmo in Sweden, Helsinki in Finland, and Barcelona in Spain are beginning to embrace skating and related activities in creative and inclusive ways. This panel is an occasion for leading voices from skateboarding, academia, and architecture in Australia to reflect on how cities here can also begin to incorporate creative activities and elements into public spaces for urban play. This is also an occasion to welcome the public to see cities differently and more creatively and inclusively through the perspective of leading change-makers including Nick Hayes, founder of First Nations company Spinifex Skateboards (NT), Timothy Lachlan, founder of WCMX (wheelchair) and Adaptive Skateboarding, Australia (QLD), Poppy Starr Olsen, professional skater, artist and Olympian, Tokyo Games (NSW) and HY William Chan, architect and Councillor, City of Sydney. Chaired by Dr Indigo Willing, skateboarder, co-author of ‘Skateboarding, Power and Change’ (Palgrave Macmillan 2023), Visiting Fellow at SSSHARC for the Skate, Create, Eduate and Regenerate (SkateCER) project, USYD and a 2024-2025 Churchill Fellow.
There will be also be an opportunity to interact with three new playable artworks/ ‘skate dots’ at The University of Sydney by public artist Dr Sanné Mestrom from the Art/Play/Risk project before the panel as part of the City Canvas Symposium 17-18 October, followed by an occasion to meet the artist and chat with panellists and all the skaters and collaborators involved with the Skate, Create, Educate and Regenerate (SkateCER) project over drinks after the panel.
confirmed speakers
Poppy Starr Olsen OLY, Skateboarder and Olympian. Thrive with Pride Ambassador. Sport Australia Hall of Frame Inductee
HY William Chan, Sydney based architect, USYD lecturer and Councillor, City of Sydney.
Timothy Lachlan, WCMX and Adaptive Skateboarding Australia founder, Queer and disabilty activist and elite wheelchair athlete.
Nick Hayes, proud Arrernte man, Traditional Owner for Ltyentye Apurte, skateboarder, founder of Spinifex Skateboards, and advocate for Indigenous youth.
Chaired by
Dr Indigo Willing, SSSHARC Visiting Fellow, USYD
Dr Sanne Mestrom, DECRA Fellow and Senior Lecturer, College of Arts, USYD.
Poppy Starr Olsen is an Olympic skateboarder, born in Newcastle and was first handed a skateboard at age eight. Poppy was recognised as one of the top 12 most influential female skaters in the world at age 13, before turning professional at 16. Poppy is a medallist across numerous international competitions including the X Games, Women’s Vertical World Championships, Oceania title in Park, Women’s RedBull Bowl Rippers Final and a gold medal at the Skate Australia National Park Championships that secured her a place on the team for Tokyo 2020, where she finished 5th in Park as the sport made its debut. She is a professional sponsored skateboarder and artist.
HY William Chan is an architect, city-maker and head delegate to the United Nations, advocating for intergenerational and climate justice. Awarded the University Medal in Architecture from the University of Sydney, William has contributed to Sydney’s most significant city-shaping projects over the past decade. He is the youngest-ever city councillor elected to the Lord Mayor’s administration in the City of Sydney’s 180-year history. A TED-featured speaker and former UNICEF Young Ambassador, William is named on Forbes magazine's ‘30 Under 30’, in the top 20 of ‘100 Inspiring Australians’ by Qantas, and the top 25 most influential people in the social sector by Pro Bono Australia.
Timothy Lachlan (he/they) is the founder of WCMX and Adaptive Skateboarding Australia. He is a queer, disabled, neurodivergent, young person, an Occupational Therapy (OT) graduate and the first Australian to land a wheelchair backflip. He was also an invited athlete who skated with Tony Hawk on a recent tour to Australia in January 2024.Tim has lived experience of disability and intersectionality. Tim uses Adaptive Skating as a tool to teach others with disabilities various mobility skills and advocate for universal design. His passion for inclusion has led him to join the panel and project. Tim’s Website
Nick 'Nicky' Hayes is an Arrernte man and Traditional Owner from Ltyentye Apurte and the founder of Spinifex Skateboards. His projects include developing the First Nations Skate tour for youth and being one of the leading figures in the creation of the first indoor skatepark and new outdoor skatepark in Ltyentye Apurte/Santa Teresa. He is also a filmer and skateboarder in Songline Skateboards, the continent’s first Indigenous skate team. He is also a public speaker including at Melbourne Design Week.
Dr Indigo Willing is a war orphan, skateboarder, has a PhD from The University of Queensland and is the co-author of Skateboarding, Power and Change (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) with Anthony Pappalardo. She is the co-chair for the international advisory board for Skateistan, who build skateparks and education programs globally. Indigo is currently a Visiting James Social Science Fellow working on the Skate, Create, Educate and Regenerate project and a 2024 faculty member for the Hunt-Simes Institute in Sexuality Studies HISS Faculty at The University of Sydney at The Sydney Social Sciences and Humanities Advanced Research Centre (SSSHARC). In September 2024 Indigo was also awarded a Churchill Fellowship.
Dr Sanne Mestrom’s practice-led research seeks to incorporate “play” into a socially engaged practice as a means to question the social consequences of urban design. Her current research investigates ways that art in public places – and urban design more broadly - can become critically integrated, inclusive and interactive spaces. To do so, her projects bring together sculpture and the body to examine the role of art in rewriting current definitions of ‘play’ as relating to the physical, experiential and ideological conditions of ‘place’. Creating temporary and permanent sculptural forms that respond to the built environment and our movement through it, softens the separation of art and everyday life; it is through this ‘softness’ that play has the potential to open up a space to escape certain logics, and denying logic is itself a subversive – and therefore political– action.