Empowering East Timorese youth through skateboarding
Park Completed!
Timor Skate was formed in 2018 with the aim of empowering Timorese youth through skateboarding. At the time the skateboard community in Timor-Leste’s capital of Dili was around 50. They had a small DIY skatepark that had been built in 2007 but was sorely rundown and needed serious upgrades. Timor Skate’s specific goal was to bring a brand new, safe and inspiring skatepark to the youth of Timor-Leste, a country on the doorstep of Australia (where we’re based).
We held two consultations onsite with the locals, initially in establishing ideas and in turn a design for further feedback and community approval. The design was entirely bespoke to the location – an array of elements that both encourage new users and provide opportunities for progression to more experienced skaters. The flow of the space was deeply considered to keep participants safe and encourage creativity.
With community approval we managed to integrate the story of Timor-Leste’s creation legend: a small boy finds a dying crocodile far from the ocean and saves it, years later the boy is older and wants to see the world, the crocodile volunteers to carry him across the oceans to explore the world together. Over time, the crocodile got tired and found its resting place offering a home for the boy’s family. That resting place is the island of Timor, with its spine resembling the mountains which define the central plateau. Our extremely skilled skatepark designer, Timor Skate board member, and all round wonderful human Wade Trevean managed to get that crocodile into the skatepark as a skateable element, to be able to share the story. It’s nice to have that local connection within the park, offering its own Timorese identity for whoever sees it.
Due to a global pandemic, it took longer to deliver the park than initially planned but the intervening years have seen multiple shipments of donated skate gear – a necessity in a country that doesn’t have a skateshop or, often, the financial means to buy equipment. For the whole of October 2023 we were finally able to get a team of dedicated builders (Wade, Gilbo, Benno, Louie, Karloz and Nick) to Dili, Timor-Leste, for the build. The team, with local help, delivered the park. Working long hours, starting early to avoid the heat we managed to finish it off with little time to spare – spurred on with high fives and shared banter from the local kids.
As soon as the last concrete was poured the park was a hub of activity whether it was the collection of girls greatly increasing their confidence and skills to the more experienced skaters being able to progress due to the range of elements and offering their time mentoring the younger users. Collectively already exceeding the number and diversity of the initial skaters in the community.
The clear benefits the park offers the local community are already evident. The park is used daily by a diverse range of skaters, assisted by Ba Futuru and Jihno, a local skater who through grants from the Good Push organisation holds a funded role at the skatepark. The park is a hub of activity and a place of learning and growth for the local community.
Timor Skate is a charity project and we fundraised over several years with various events with incredible financial support from The Skateroom, Wonders around the World, the Australian embassy in Timor-Leste, RMS Construction, Decks for Change, Goodpush and numerous passionate/generous people from around the world.
Our Team
Nick Oats - President
Nick feels both lucky and humbled to have visited Dili every six months or so for the past few years. It’s hard to visit a country that has faced such recent, all-encompassing violence and trauma, that has a long list of needs and yet so many friendly, welcoming people, and not want to give something back of a personal nature.
Knowing firsthand the positive force that skateboarding can be, when Nick met up with local skaters building their own community with worn-out second-hand boards and a slowly decaying park built with more passion than experience, it was obvious what that personal contribution should be.
Despite nearly twenty-five years on a skateboard, Nick quickly realized he could offer precious little in imparting his hard earned yet underwhelming stuntwood “skills.” Looking instead to his fifteen or so years as a bureaucrat, he rallied a group of friends with the aim of rebuilding the Dili skatepark. What he lacks in skateboard wizardry he makes up for in the ability to circulate papers, chair meetings, and lodge documents in due accordance with statutory timelines. He also holds a masters degree in international and community development, providing an important lens for Timor Skate’s efforts.
Wade Trevean - Vice President
Over the past 13 years Wade has worked with several Australian based skate park design/construction companies with roles leading from Senior Designer to Principal, delivering over 120 skate parks both in Australia and overseas. Academically he has an Advanced Diploma of Civil Engineering at the Victoria University of Technology in Melbourne and a Master’s in Construction Management at the Swinburne University of Technology.
Wade's first charity project was for a small skate space in Kathmandu, Nepal and has since volunteered on projects in Morocco, Palestine and Iraq with skatepark designs, construction and the collaboratively onsite management. Wade advocates for accessible and sustainable youth spaces that encourage community wide inclusion from initial design consultations, build assistance to the activation of their space, ensuring spaces that caters for both passive and active use for all user types and associated skill levels. In addition, he ensures that completed projects are constructed as per international standards to deliver well-built long lasting and safe facilities.