Burlington, Ont. - Many athletes sacrifice time and comfort to pursue elite sport. For, Mikisiw Awashish the cost was deeper – distance from his Indigenous culture and community in Mashteuiatsh, Quebec.

Awashish, a 25-year-old civil engineering graduate and fourth-year forward on the McGill Redbirds men's hockey team, started playing at the age of three. Book smart with a high hockey IQ, he got better and progressed through different levels, up to the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and eventually to McGill. But that meant Awashish wasn't around to experience some of the culture deeply rooted in his family.

He had a desire to reconnect. His mom Anne Casavant is Innu, from Mashteuiatsh, and his late father Ernest Awashish was Atikamekw from Opticiwan. They had two daughters, Waseskon (which references the sun after a rainstorm) and Mikonis (a small feather). Their youngest child Mikisiw, whose name means "eagle" in Atikamekw, embarked on a path that took him away from the community. He bridged that distance in a powerful way, by bringing McGill hockey to Mashteuiatsh.

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