Treaty 6 students play hooky for hockey at Oil Kings game in Edmonton

By Jeremy Appel, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter 

(ANNews) – Community members from three Treaty 6 First Nations were able to travel down to Rogers Place to see the Canadian Hockey League in action as part of this year’s Hockey Hooky event, which brings thousands of students and educators from schools across northern Alberta to an afternoon Edmonton Oil Kings game. 

Accounting firm KRP Group sponsored 150 tickets so that Alexis School on Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation, Onchaminahos School and Kihew Asiniy Education Centre on Saddle Lake Cree Nation and the Kipohtakaw Education Center on Alexander First Nation could send kids to the March 12 event. 

The Oil Kings have two Indigenous players—Treycen Wuttunee of Red Pheasant Cree Nation and Alexander Andre, who is Métis—according to Hockey Indigenous. 

While the hometown Oil Kings lost 3-2 to the visiting Calgary Hitmen, many of the students were happy to just attend a hockey game in Edmonton, according to Onchaminahos principal Penella Cardinal. 

“A lot of our students may have never been to Rogers Place or they’ve never seen a real hockey game on ice,” Cardinal told Alberta Native News. “Any new experience like that is fantastic.”

Her K-5 school sent 20 students, a teacher and four educational assistants to the game, giving the other 25 tickets to the local high school, Kihew Asiniy. 

“They always enjoy it,” said Cardinal. “The kids always love going to see the hockey game.” 

In addition to the game, there’s a “built-in educational component,” according to the Hockey Hooky website. Each student receives a workbook when they enter the arena, in which they can answer questions that appear on the scoreboard during each break in the game. 

Cardinal noted that teachers select which students come to Hockey Hooky—some boys and some girls, some who are hockey players and some who have never stepped foot on ice. 

“It gives them a chance to see how many other schools and how many other students there are, because they’re almost all in the same grades, and they get to meet other people too,” Cardinal said. 

It’s also a positive experience for the educators, who are able to take the students’ enjoyment of the game and incorporate it into their teaching, she said. 

Grade 5 students, for example, have a unit on biography and are assigned research on a specific public figure, which can include hockey players. 

“It’s a day where all the kids are happy, the staff are happy. It’s just a good day all around,” said Cardinal.

Rob Picton, a partner at KRP, said that his firm is “privileged” to have sent more than 1,200 students to Hockey Hooky in recent years. 

“It’s an honour to know that for many of these Treaty 6 students, it is their first time being inside Rogers Place, seeing where their heroes play, and we hope this day inspires them!”