STONEY NAKODA – A healthy lifestyle plays a major role in the culture of Nakoda Elementary School (NES), and students received Olympic-level encouragement this week to keep up the good work.
Brigette Lacquette, Canada’s first First Nations hockey player on the women’s Olympic team, brought her mentorship to the Stoney Nakoda First Nation school on Monday (March 11) with clear motivation for students: put your mind to something and you can do great things.
“It doesn’t matter where they come from or who they are,” said Lacquette, a silver medallist in the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics. “It’s a lot of hard work and determination, perseverance and reminding that going through all that, is definitely worth it.”
From Mallard, Man. – Lacquette’s father is from O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation and her mother is from Cote First Nation, Sask. – the Olympian is a Classroom Champions mentor and speaks to Indigenous students about her life, dealing with racism in sport at a young age, and being inspired by Jordin Tootoo, a popular Inuit hockey player who made the NHL.
“When they’re just watching and listening to my story and I can see that with some kids they can really relate and they make it a point to come see me and say they’ve experienced the same things,” Lacquette said.
During Monday’s visit, Lacquette had a school presentation, a meet and greet with photos and autographs, and then played hockey with students and staff to end the day.
“I never really had anyone come in [my school] who had the same background I did and I think it was when, I always say this, when Jordin Tootoo made the world junior team, that’s kind of when [hockey] caught my eye, but we never had that high-level athlete come to my school,” she said.
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Stoney Nakoda is made up of three bands – Bearspaw, Chiniki, and Wesley – and the younger generations still experience negative effects and trauma from residential schools, which are well documented as places of physical and mental abuse to Indigenous children in Canada during the 19th and 20th century.
As part of NES’s commitment to developing a healthier school culture, Grade 2 teacher Sheryl Cameron and phys-ed teacher Aimee Dixon arranged to have the Indigenous Olympic athlete visit as a role model for students.
“We want to bring in people who are active, who our kids have somebody to look up to and say this is what you need to do and this is what you have to do to get to this level,” Dixon said.
The phys-ed teacher has spearheaded active initiatives at NES, such as Workout Wednesdays, planning more active field trips, and partnering with the Canmore Eagles junior A hockey team for a hockey and literacy program, starting next year.
“This is my fourth year [at NES], I’m from the community, and in my four years, we’ve been trying to promote healthy living – eating right, getting out and exercising, anything to help the kids to get out and be more active,” said Dixon.
“Getting familiar with getting them taking care of themselves this young, I think, is so important and they have taken it so well and I think it’s getting better from here.”
Dixon is pleased to have the support from administration on the healthy lifestyle initiative.
“I love it, we’ve come a long ways in the four years, I’m going to say.”
