Trinity Western grad Kyra McDonald, now first Inuvialuit female to turn pro

Kyra McDonald, an Inuvialuit from Inuvik, has broken barriers on her journey from playing hockey on a boys’ team in her hometown to pursuing a professional career in Europe. After playing university hockey at Trinity Western University in BC, where she earned a Bachelor of Human Kinetics in Kinesiology, McDonald is taking the exciting step of moving to Switzerland to play professionally. While adapting to a new culture and life away from home, she continues to pursue her passion for hockey. As the first Inuvialuit woman to play professional hockey, Kyra hopes to inspire other Inuvialuit and Indigenous youth. Here she is, in conversation with Stacie Arden Smith:

Kyra McDonald: Hi, I’m Kyra McDonald. I’m from Inuvik, Northwest Territories, and I’m Inuvialuit.

CKLB:  Thank you so much for taking the opportunity to speak with me. You have had an incredible journey, going from playing hockey in Inuvik all the way to going to university over to Trinity Western, and then now you have been signed to play hockey. How does that feel?

Kyra McDonald: “It’s amazing. I mean, to reflect kind of back at it, it’s like I’ve slowly taken each step, and thankfully been fortunate enough to kind of achieve the goals I wanted. And it’s kind of already felt like a pretty long journey. I think just moving away from home was a big step for me, and you know, getting used to the city life, kind of, and new people, and not being used to kind of knowing everyone in a small town. And then, yeah, I never. And it was kind of my other my other biggest goal was even just to go play university level hockey. So when that happened, that was already a big goal achieves. So, and then the past couple years, I was talking about hopefully playing professionally in Europe. So the fact that it’s happening is pretty amazing.”

CKLB:  “I hear when you were playing in Inuvik, you were playing with the boys’ team. Is that correct?”

Kyra McDonald: “Yeah. Yeah. Throughout minor hockey, it was always just the boys, and there was usually not that many girls, probably only like four or five of us. So, and when I was younger, it was even less than that. So it was maybe more when I got to Bantam or Midge. It was when there was a few more girls. But yeah, it was always a definitely always just the boys to me.”

CKLB:  “And do you think that really gave you a leg up your skill level once you got over to university level?”

Kyra McDonald: “I do feel like it made a difference. Even speaking with girls who grew up only playing with girls, I feel like it does make a bigger difference. And honestly, I feel like it made me more competitive because, you know, with boys it can be a little frustrating to play sports with them. So I feel like I always kind of felt like I wanted to prove them wrong sometimes, or definitely was always just trying to either be at their level even better. So I feel like it definitely helped me kind of be more competitive in that way.”

CKLB: “Now I understand you recently graduated as well from Trinity. Can you tell us about that?”

Kyra McDonald: “I feel like I still I’m still processing it a little bit just because like looking back at me being in university, it’s kind of either it felt like a long time, but then once I graduated, I feel like it kind of all flew by. See when you play like a sport at school, you get an extra year, so it’s usually a four-year program. But with hockey, we got to do five, so it is like obviously beginning school, it felt like it was going to be like forever.

“Like five years feels like a long time, but now that I’m done, it definitely felt like it flew by, and yeah, I mean it was it was definitely challenging being a student athlete, and I definitely learned a lot and learned a lot of time management and skills, which I’m really grateful for, and that my hockey team there changed so much while I was while I was playing there with different coaches and players and yeah I’m really grateful for the experience and I had a really great time and I was really lucky that it was a smaller university too so it kind of felt more like home where it was definitely like a smaller community so it definitely wasn’t overwhelming in that aspect which I was grateful for.”

CKLB: “What undergrad did you did you achieve?”

Kyra McDonald: “I took a bachelor of human kinetics in kinesiology.”

CKLB: “Okay, so once you are you know kind of completed with hockey, do you hope to kind of transfer that education into kinesiology? Maybe still being within the hockey field or sport field?”

Kyra McDonald: “Yes, I’d love to. That that was definitely always on my mind. Taking this in school was is definitely related to a lot of athletics with you know the like human body and movement. So my definitely my dream is to hopefully go into physio or something like that and work with sports teams and it’d be great to even yeah like work with specifically hockey teams. That would be kind of a dream of mine.”

CKLB: “Was hockey always on the bill for you since you were a little girl? That’s what you wanted to do? Was that your dream?”

Kyra McDonald: “Yeah. Yes, for sure. I’ve always I’ve always always been really you know really related to sports and everything. And I and I knew I wanted to be in the medical field somehow or with yeah, with helping people, and you know, even being an athlete myself, I I’ve had a lot of yeah, like physios or like therapists that have helped so much with me throughout my time, and it’s definitely I can tell how probably good of a feeling it is to help athletes recover and get them back into their sport as soon as they can, so I definitely want to look into that, and I definitely want to hopefully have that as a career when I’m older.”

CKLB: “And moving over to Switzerland, how does that look for you? Like, are you excited? Are you a little nervous, fearful? Have you already scoped out places you’re going to stay? What does it look like?”

Kyra McDonald: “I’m definitely. Not as nervous in the fact that going there, thankfully the team kind of covers everything and all the accommodations to live there. I thankfully didn’t have to stress about finding a place to live or stay or anything like that. So, and there’s at least there’s four Canadians on the team in total. I’ll be I’ll be one Canadian with three other girls. So at least it’s like that definitely helps. Where I don’t feel like I’ll be alone or kind of the only Canadian on the team. So that’s really nice because I know a lot of girls that I’ve met that have gone over to Europe have kind of dealt with that. Where it could be just them as the only Canadian on the team. So it could be probably feel a little isolating. I’m thankful for that.

“I definitely can always have people there to talk to and yeah, kind of relate to. I’m excited about that and to meet the girls and play with them. But yeah, I definitely am a little nervous just about the obviously the huge cultural difference of living here versus living in Europe. But I’m also very excited because I’ve also heard really good things about Switzerland. I’ve had a couple friends like travel there before, and they loved it. Definitely seems like a beautiful country, and very safe, and there’s a lot of things to look at and explore.

“So, I’m definitely a mix of nervous and excited. Just also being like, I mean, like the probably I’m definitely the only like Inuit person there, and like stuff like that. So it’ll be definitely a bit of yeah, like um kind of I mean mainly I feel like it kind of merges together as being nervous and excited. So but yeah, I’m definitely looking forward to it. But and can’t wait to look around. But I’ll definitely have to get used to the culture and everything there.”

CKLB: “I had an opportunity a few weeks ago to talk to Sharon Firth. She was telling me about all of her travels with her and Shirley when they went over to Europe to go to the Olympics, and she said, you know, it was an eye opener to be able to see these places, the beautiful places, and then experience the food, and they’re more astute to nutrition. I think you will be very surprised with what you come in contact with in Switzerland. How do you think you’re going to deal with homesickness? I know you went off to Trinity Western and you were there for five years, but I mean, flying from Inuvik to Vancouver area is a lot closer than flying from Inuvik all the way to Switzerland. How do you hope to cope with being a little bit homesick?”

Kyra McDonald: “I mean, I’m I’ll be fortunate enough that my family want to come visit, as much as they can, especially for Christmas and stuff like that. But yeah, I definitely have been thinking about that, and part of me isn’t as anxious about it as I thought I’d be. Just mainly because yeah, I’ve been away from home for like about seven years now, like throughout each year, and I only come home for usually just the summer or like a quick visit during Christmas or stuff like that. So I think yeah, I think it’ll be an adjustment for sure. But I think once I get settled in and get used to my schedule, I usually I feel like the time kind of flies by. So and with my parents and family coming to visit, I mean that’ll definitely help a lot.

“And because yeah, even when I was going to Trinity Western, like they would usually only visit me once or twice a year, so I feel like I’m already kind of used to it. And even my coach was definitely worried about me being homesick, because I guess it’s obviously happened to a lot of girls in the past that have come from Canada. I think it’ll be. I mean, I’m sure I definitely will. There’s no way I won’t get homesick, but I think I’m lucky enough that I’ve experienced being away from home for so long because I know a lot of girls probably haven’t.

“They probably grew up playing at home all the time and living at home even throughout university, probably. So, you know, it definitely could be a bigger shock to them. But I’m think I’m I’ve definitely had to go through those steps already of leaving home and getting used to different places and stuff like that. I think it’ll definitely obviously feel different because it’s so far away and everything. But I mean, yeah, I feel like it’ll in some ways it won’t feel as shocking to me as it would have before.”

CKLB: “And so I was trying to actually look it up, but to see are you the first Inuvialuit female to make it to professionals in hockey?”

Kyra McDonald: “I believe so. I feel like there aren’t, unfortunately, that many Inuvialuit hockey players.”

CKLB: “how does that make you feel to be the first?”

Kyra McDonald: “I mean, I definitely didn’t even think about stuff like that when it was first kind of happening. But obviously, it makes me like super proud of myself. I think I’ve been lately so in like kind of like tunnel mode of like getting to that next step and working hard towards it. And kind of only once they signed pro, I really was able to kind of reflect on that, and I kind of got reminded by people of these accomplishments, and even I think someone even mentioned that I might be even just the first overall Inuit female hockey player to go pro. So even telling my teammates, my friends that, like they’ve they were super proud of me, and it’s definitely the coolest feeling, like to kind of yeah make history like that already, and it’s yeah still definitely haven’t processed it, but I really hope that that encourages other young female hockey players, especially NWT girls up North, to keep playing. And I’ve even yeah had parents come up too when I was visiting home and just saying how they think it’s so awesome that their girls wants to want to play hockey, so yeah, definitely it feels amazing.”

CKLB:  “That’s incredible. And to kind of continue on that, what kind of words of wisdom would you give to the younger generation who want to pursue their dreams?”

Kyra McDonald: “I mean, my yeah, my biggest message to a lot of them the past couple years have always been like, I feel like if you have a true passion for your sport and want to keep playing it, want to keep getting better, can definitely take you to a lot of amazing places and opportunities. Because I and I mean, especially up North, there’s um, I was able, I was fortunate enough to yeah like represent Team NT and represent Team North and stuff like that throughout different sports. So I feel like if you keep kind of working hard at what you’re doing and really love your sport, it can really take you anywhere. Yeah.?

CKLB: “If you had the opportunity to play hockey with anyone in history, who would it be?”

Kyra McDonald:  “I mean, growing up, I definitely always was looked up to Haley Wickenheiser. This is such a legend in female hockey, and I also really looked up to Bridget Laquette, who is an Indigenous hockey player on Team Canada. So I mean playing with either of them would be amazing, and I’ve actually been fortunate enough to play with like kind of in random tournaments or something that I was able to play with some girls from Team Canada. So it’s yeah, it’s really cool, and like just specifically, there’s been a lot more Indigenous hockey players that have been playing professionally and even in the PWHL, so playing with any of them and even meeting them would be amazing. That would probably be just another reminder of like the next level you can go at, and they’re big role models to me too.”

An example of Kyra McDonald’s impact at Trinity Western University as a forward with the female Spartans:

MCDONALD GETS HAT TRICK TO LEAD SPARTANS OVER DINOS

1/31/2025 | 7:00 PM

CALGARY, Alberta – Fourth-year forward Kyra McDonald (Inuvik, NT) finished an impressive weekend with three goals to lead the Spartans to a 4-1 victory over the Calgary Dinos Saturday afternoon at the David Bauer Arena in Calgary, Alberta.

The hat trick was a first for the women’s hockey program.

The win improves the third-place Spartans to 12-11-1-0 (25 points) in the Canada West West division, while the loss drops the fourth-place Dinos to 6-14-0-1 (14 points).

Said Trinity Western Head Coach Peter Hay: “Special shout out to the line of Reid, Matthews, and McDonald as they dominated the weekend sweep. McDonald getting a hat-trick today and five goals for the weekend was huge. She gets better every game and is becoming a top Canada West player.”

Stacie Arden Smith/Native Communications Society of the NWT/Local Journalism Initiative