Rhonda Knight has been playing hockey since she was five years old.

The 17-year-old plays centre and is the captain of the Hants East Rural High School team. Knight says that on the ice is where she feels most at home.

“It just makes me not think about everything else that’s going on,” she said. “I like it. It’s a lot of hard work but keeps me active. You’re kind of just anywhere on the ice. I don’t like being in one spot, I just like to move.”

This year, she helped her team place third at provincials, but an incident during a tournament at the end of February left Knight shaken and almost had her considering quitting hockey.

The team was in Cape Breton for a tournament on the weekend of Feb. 29, Knight explains.

During the semifinals, they faced Dr. John Hugh Gillis Regional High School in Antigonish, N.S.

Knight says they played the game and, unfortunately, lost 2-0.

After taking off her gear in the dressing room, Knight says she went back to the rink to see if she had left her stick on the bench. As she was walking back, she said she touched her hair when she noticed something wrong.

“There was a bunch of hair in my hands.”

Her mother, Tracy, was nearby and took a look at her hair.

“I started going through her hair, and a handful…came in my hand, so I’m looking and I said, ‘Somebody cut your hair,’” Tracy explained.

Knight said she was devastated. She says she is proud of her long hair and hasn’t cut it in four years.

She is a member of the Indian Brook First Nation and says hair is an important part of her Mi’kmaq culture.

“My hair gives me strength,” she said. “Our hair, it connects us to the earth.”

Her mother says that while not everyone will understand the importance hair has in their culture, she says the decision to cut your hair is deeply personal and shouldn’t be taken away from someone.

“When you touch somebody’s hair, it’s like a personal attack on their soul,” she said. “They violated her.”

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