Mike Auksi, Fifth-Year Doctoral Candidate in KPE, Featured in Innovation.ca Article

Mike Auksi, Anishinaabe and Estonian, is a fifth-year doctoral candidate in the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education, connected to Lac Seul First Nation and Pelican Lake hockey team, and played for the Lac Seul Eagles and Stars hockey teams.

Auksi’s vision of a more collective hockey narrative rooted in First Nations worldviews and values works alongside communities like Lac Seul to overcome some of these barriers. Funding for the emergent lab space (called Onkwanaktí:io, a Mohawk word meaning “Our nice inclusive space”) in which Auksi works daily in Montréal came from the CFI. Located within McGill University’s Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education, the lab, which is led by Auksi’s PhD supervisor, Jordan Koch, focuses on socially conscious research and often draws on Indigenous studies and the history and sociology of sport. Other disciplines within the department also provide a space that allows layered relationships to inform the development of knowledge, a constellation of many centres rather than a single story.