Rocking with Roque

A huge line snaked through the Kahnawake Survival School (KSS) gymnasium last Wednesday, as Kahnawake’s next generation of budding hockey players and fans waited for their turn to meet Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) legend Abby Roque, one of the Montreal Victoire’s top scorers.

“I really look up to Abby,” said 12-year-old Wahiarihtha Aria Kirby, who plays for the U13 AAA Lac St. Louis Warriors.

Roque is Ojibwe from Wahnapitae First Nation, and is the sole Indigenous player on the Montreal Victoire roster. Kirby said that being able to look up to fellow Onkwehón:we in the PWHL keeps her motivated to keep pushing herself further, so that she can make her own community proud on the ice.

“For me, that’s why I look up to her. One day, I want to make it to the PWHL, and I want to be there representing Kahnawake,” she said. “That’s why I’m working so hard right now in order to get higher and be better. Hockey is my main thing. I love playing this sport.”

Roque shared her journey to professional hockey with KSS students, letting them hold her silver olympic medal from 2022, where she became the first Indigenous person to play for the Team USA women’s hockey team.

Roque stayed driven, joined the PWHL for their first season in 2024, where she played for the New York Sirens and scored the first Michigan goal in PWHL history.

She was traded to the Montreal Victoire last year, where she’s made a name for herself as the team’s second-highest goal scorer this season, behind Victoire captain Marie-Philip Poulin.

“I love to do community events like this, it’s good to see young, Indigenous youth be interested in something like this, in sports, in what I love, and just be able to talk to them and connect with them,” Roque told The Eastern Door. “I think that’s really special and it’s something I didn’t necessarily have as a young hockey player. I didn’t really get to meet anybody who’d played at this level who was also Indigenous, so I think it’s really cool to be able to do that.”

The Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK)’s general manager of sports and recreation Kwaronhienhawi Jacobs, facilitated Roque’s KSS visit.

“She’s not just a PWHL professional player, but she’s Native too, and that really brings it home to the students to realize, ‘Oh, she’s Native like me, if she can do it, I can do it,’” Jacobs said. “Just that little bit of encouragement for these girls to play hockey and do their best really means a lot.”

Roque was gifted a beaded Montreal Victoire medallion made by community member Kahentísa’s Alfred, which was presented to her by Jacobs’ daughter, 17-year-old Niiohentaa Diabo.

“It’s really inspirational,” said Diabo, who plays with U18A Rockettes du Suroit. “Just the thought of the PWHL being an option is really cool to know. Girls are always fighting for their sports to be better, and this just shows that things are changing right now, and we’re getting more opportunities.”

KSS principal Sha’teiohserí:io Patton said that it’s especially important to foster the sporting dreams of girls in the community.

“Hearing her talk about her journey and her emphasis on how important education has been honestly meant everything to us,” Patton said. “Being able to get especially our female hockey students in such close proximity to someone who made it in that career is so nice to see, and I hope that we can keep promoting to our students the pathways they need to take and what networks they need to have to get there.”

Roque will be back in Kahnawake for a training session on March 5, where she’ll be working with teams from U5 to U18 at the Kahnawake Sports Complex.

“For my generation and the girls that are a little older than me, our proudest accomplishment was getting this league made,” said Roque. “It’s no longer ‘I want to play in the NHL’ as a kid and then realizing you can’t, it’s now ‘I want to play in the PWHL,’ and there’s that place for them to dream and to go play.”

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