Mike Auksi, Fifth-Year Doctoral Candidate in KPE, Featured in Innovation.ca Article
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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鈥檚 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 Onkwanakt铆:io, a Mohawk word meaning 鈥淥ur nice inclusive space鈥) in which Auksi works daily in Montr茅al came from the CFI. Located within 平特五不中鈥檚 Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education, the lab, which is led by Auksi鈥檚 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.