Waneek Horn-Miller is a Mohawk from Kahnawake, Quebec, a community just outside of Montreal. Her life of activism began when she was just a child during the Oka Crisis. This famous altercation between the Canadian Government and the Mohawk people in 1990 was result of huge tension regarding the use of Mohawk land. At just 14 years of age, Waneek Horn-Miller was taking part in the stand for Indigenous rights. Sadly, on the last day of the standoff, she was stabbed near the heart by a soldier's bayonnet while trying to carry her little sister out. On that day she almost died while fighting for the rights of Mohawk people. The almost fatal attack didn't stop a teenage Waneek Horn-Miller as she continued to pursue activism throughout her life.

As an adult, Waneek Horn-Miller became the first Mohawk woman to participate in the Olympic Games for Canada. She did this by being the best player on the Canadian woman's water polo team and leading them to gold in the PanAm games and fifth in the Olympics. This alone, was enough for her to be a role model for young aspiring indigenous athletes so that they know that they can make it professionally too.. With this said, her exceptional work in sport also gave her a platform to continue her activism, even after she retired. She did this through numerously calling out various Canadian sport organizations of racism and challenging them so that change could be made within these organizations and they could be more accepting to indigenous people. She was thus able to pathe the way for change for indigenous people in the Canadian athletic system, a fight which isn't fully over yet. Aswell this, she fought for indigenous rights at a larger scale by being one of the leaders in the search for the thousands of indigenous women who go missing yearly. Her charge along with others lead to the government finally spending money on teams devoted to finding these young women and trying to stop these murders and abductions from happening in the future. Although this issue has now been somewhat worked on, the issue is still no where close to being resolved/stopped. Through her continuous battle against these systems and provoking change, Waneek Horn-Miller has demonstrated why it's so important to use your voice to speak up against these problems and shows why she is a role model for everyone.