Brigette Lacquette, 1st Indigenous woman to scout in NHL, calls for more diversity, inclusion in hockey

Brigette Lacquette recalls trying out for her first summer hockey team with her sister and the unwelcoming vibe that greeted them in the dressing room.

The First Nations siblings from Mallard, Man., had already navigated the barrier of extensive, expensive travel just to be there.

"They all just kind of stared at us. No one said 'hi.' No one said anything. We sat on one side of the dressing room and they just stared at us. I remember how uncomfortable of a feeling that was," Lacquette told The Canadian Press.

"I got cut and then I went to another team and I'm still friends with at least five or six girls on that team from when I played hockey at 11 or 12 years old. They were so open and accepting. They didn't care about the colour of our skin. They just cared if we could play hockey or not. Then they made it a point to talk to us and made us feel comfortable."

Lacquette, 29, also serves on the NHL's player inclusion and female hockey advisory committees.

"Right now, I'm so passionate about diversity, equity and inclusion, especially in hockey," Lacquette said.

She's a spokeswoman for a program designed to foster those elements in the sport, and one that is accelerating the work of a female hockey association on Canada's east coat.

About 30 per cent of the Cape Breton Blizzard Female Hockey Association is Indigenous, Black or people of colour.

"They're promoting inclusion by creating teams in First Nations communities and developing all-female referee crews and training female coaches and things like that, so I feel like they've done a lot for their community," Lacquette explained.

"Traditionally hockey is a white man's sport, so kind of changing that narrative of it just being strictly a white-man's sport. Hockey is for