by By Dan Ninham, contributing writer
Fawn Porter is a Wolf clan member of the Cayuga Nation. She attends Western University in London, Ontario.
Porter plays three versions of lacrosse. “I play wherever I can get lacrosse,” she said.
Porter made the Team Haudenosaunee 12’s Lacrosse team and traveled to Maryland in 2022 and placed eighth. During her first and second years at Western University she was a part of the team that were OUA Champions. She was named to the OUA First Team All Star during her fourth year at Western University.
In the Sixes Lacrosse division, Porter made the Team Haudenosaunee lacrosse team in 2022 and traveled to Birmingham, Alabama to play in the first World Games Sixes tournament. She was also on the Team Haudenosaunee Sixes lacrosse team in 2022 that traveled to Oshawa where they beat England and Canada. This would be the first time Team Haudenosaunee beat Team Canada.
Porter was also on the Team Haudenosaunee Sixes team in 2023 that went to Oshawa and Jamaica. The team won the gold medal at the Pan-American Lacrosse Association (PALA) Cup in Jamaica.
As a box lacrosse player, she played on the first Team Haudenosaunee women’s box lacrosse team in 2013. She was on Team Ontario and came in third at the 2015 Nationals. Porter’s Six Nations Warriors team won the Pool A championship in 2017 and was the first time in history the girls box program won at that level.
Porter is currently trying out for the first ever Team Haudenosaunee women’s box lacrosse team that will compete at the first ever World Box Lacrosse Championship. ”This is huge! We’ve never had a stage this big for box lacrosse,” added Porter.
Indigenous athletes connect with their indigenous traditions and identity to guide them on their journey.
“Being indigenous is everything to me,” said Porter. “I come from a traditional family and have always been grateful for this as I really feel it has saved and steered me in the direction I needed to take throughout my life.”
“Being onkwehowe (original people) has made me feel like I have this spot in the world where I’m supposed to help and be impactful to prepare this world for our next generations of onkwehowe to grow into. Wherever I go, I carry myself with pride and show respect to everyone and everything because that’s a big part of our culture,” added Porter.
“Respect and having that good mind are two values that brought me to some unbelievable places and continues to keep me grounded wherever I am,” said Porter. “That’s all I am here to do. Live my life with my good mind, it will help myself accept the hard things life and look toward bettering the future.”
“And being respectful to every being I come across. So when respect is given out, it is given back and more and not even just for me, for our culture. My indigenous values are with me wherever I go and have taught me how to carry myself through this world. Having an onkwehowe identity has been the reason I remain grounded and feel like i move through this world to be impactful yet respectful at the same time,” added Porter.
Being an indigenous elite athlete also includes being challenged to find ways to get better and to make your team better. Traditionally the wooden stick game has been a male-dominated sport among the Haudenosaunee.
“I love a sport that my culture said I could not be a part of,” said Porter. “How could I feel so at home in a sport that was not meant for me?”
“Lacrosse was made by the creator for the men to play for his enjoyment while he watched and for our people to settle disputes. It was a brutal game which could often result in serious injury or death. Given the name ‘little brother of war’, women were not meant to play because of our ability to give birth and they did not want women to injure themselves,” added Porter.
Porter continued to talk about the connections of the traditional form of lacrosse. She said, “Lacrosse is also a ceremonial tradition in our culture and the wooden stick carries medicine in it when the men play. Women having their moon time could spoil this medicine because they were too powerful.”
“Coming from a traditional family, my grandmother was not too fond of this idea,” said Porter. “My grandmother is very accepting and understanding but could not support my love for this game at the beginning. It was hard to play something I knew bothered my grandmother.”
“However, we sat down and had a long discussion about this and I explained my love for the game an in the end, I ended up promising her I will always play this game with a ‘good mind’. No matter how worked up I get, or how badly I want to win, I will always reset myself and remind myself to play with a good mind and to play with respect and for fun … with no ill intent. The way the game is supposed to be played,” added Porter.
“I had other problems like playing with the boys and being told I shouldn’t be playing,” Porter said. “It got to a point where I quit for two years because the boys were getting bigger than me and I still was not getting anywhere because no one passed the ball or even really acknowledged me. Imagine your first team you’re on and some of your team don’t like you because you’re a girl. Then when I played on a girls box lacrosse team, it was seen as ‘not cool’ or feeling like ‘you’ll never be good enough and you’ll never go anywhere with this’. I just knew I loved this sport.”
“And if wasn’t for my indigenous core values and truly knowing how the game should be played, with a good mind, I probably would’ve quit and completed nothing,” said Porter. “Now, I couldn’t imagine a quarter of the opportunities I received that I continued playing lacrosse my way. Playing for Team Haudenosaunee and traveling with them. Playing with some unbelievable players and bettering my game.”
“There’s also the not being able to progress because no one wanted to really coach the girls. Then all of a sudden a couple coaches took interest in girls’ lacrosse and brought us to another level and boosted all of our confidence to the point where some of us still play just because the confidence they instilled in us back then allowed us to go for some big opportunities such as Team Haudenosaunee,” added Porter.
Mentors help guide elite athletes on their journey on and off the field and in and out of the box.
Tim Bomberry is one of Porter’s mentor. “He’s the coach from girls’ box lacrosse that elevated my skills to the next level and instilled that confidence in me and still does to this day. He’s my Team Haudenosaunee coach now. Tim went out of his way to train his girls and I’m grateful he invited me as well.”
“I coached Fawn in box lacrosse at Six Nations and most recently in women’s sixes lacrosse for the Haudenosaunee,” said Tim Bomberry. “I have always known Fawn to be a great athlete in general and an excellent lacrosse player in particular. Fawn is a great two-way player on offense and defense and she can do it all. Very coachable and always eager to learn. She is committed and extremely competitive. Fawn is very humble and a real team player. She has really demonstrated her ability in the sixes version of lacrosse and is a leader on the team.”
Tony Henhawk is Porter’s coach for her summer lacrosse team in Hamilton. “He’s got the core values I look for in a coach and really does everything for the love of the game,” said Porter. “You want passion. This is your guy.”
Towi Oakes is Porter’s boyfriend and he’s also a goalie. Porter said, “He’s an amazing goalie and has always been in my corner and not afraid to give criticism when it is and not needed. He’s a big reason I push myself further than I think I can go. He’s a big reason why I even tried out for Team Haudenosaunee. He’s also my backyard practice partner.”
Teiowisontakie Oakes friends call him “Towi”. Porter considers him a mentor. “She wasn’t sure if she wanted to try out for Haudenosaunee field because she never really felt comfortable playing the 12v12 game and doubted that she was up to par with the other girls. I just gave her words of encouragement. After talking her into it she decided she was going to try out.”
“She trained pretty much every day in order to make the team, in the heat, rain, snow, didn’t matter she was outside working towards making the team. I was out there with her giving her drills and coaching and giving her someone to pass with, shoot on, talk to, you name it, I was right there with her,” added Towi.
Claudia Jimerson is the Director of Women’s Lacrosse Operations for Team Haudenosaunee. Porter said, “She’s always made sure Team Haudenosaunee was given so many unique opportunities and had given my name for other opportunities. She emits passion for women’s lacrosse.”
“My connection to Fawn Porter is she’s one of our players and she’s my younger cousin, but I didn’t meet her until she tried out for the Haudenosaunee Nationals,” said Claudia Jimerson.
“Fawn has been part of several of our teams since I started running the Women’s Operations. I’ve watched her start out quiet and uncertain of where she fits in with the team both on and off the field. She has grown so much in the last two years and has really grown more confident. She is clicking with the chemistry of the team and understands her role; and she’s a force on the field. She brings a lot of positivity and muscle to the team and is a pure competitor!”
“I have had some discussions with our players as a group throughout the last couple of years as to why they play lacrosse. To use that when nothing else is meeting your expectations is one of the things that keep players grounded, so it’s important they understand this for themselves,” added Jimerson.
“The other thing that I feel contributed to her growth is I made her do several interviews with reporters at the World Championships and World Games,” said Jimerson. “She is well spoken and needs to speak more, so I kept putting her in front of the camera. I feel that putting players in front of the camera like that when they feel uncomfortable really helps them grow and she has.”
“There came a time where World Lacrosse asked for a women’s rep from Haudenosaunee to speak at the Press Conference for the 2024 Women’s World Box Championship Announcement in Utica. So, I had to pick a player that I knew who was going to play box and the only one I really knew was Fawn. She was all for it at first, but then when she got the talking points that they wanted her to speak to; she got nervous,” added Jimerson.
“So, I helped talk her through it and kept encouraging her to just speak from the heart. She sent me a draft of her speech and it was so good. I wasn’t able to be there, but I had so many text messages and emails of the awesome job she did; it made me so proud! She moved them with her words and made them feel some sort of way, because people were talking about it weeks after she did it,” added Jimerson.
Haudenosaunee Nationals 12’s head coach Elizabeth Beville knew Fawn when she started working with the Haudenosaunee women’s program. Coach Beville said, “I’ve really enjoyed watching Fawn develop into a great field lacrosse player. She grew up playing box lacrosse so she has a great lax IQ and knows how to finish her shots. Throughout the last few years she has become a more confident defender and initiator on the offensive end. Fawn had a fantastic showing at the PALA tournament in November.”
