Noka Fit is a wellness guide built on the Noka Way — the philosophy of Gerard Roque, a First Nation man from Wahnapitae who made plenty of mistakes along the way, and came to believe in one thing above all: small promises made to yourself, kept one day at a time. Kept promises become evidence. Evidence becomes belief. Belief changes a life.
Noka Fit opens — Friday, January 1, 2027
Checking the time in Saskatchewan…
Four principles, drawn from a life that started over more than once. Noka Fit isn't built on struggle — Gerard rejects that word. It's built on belief: getting up in the morning because you believe in your life and you're glad to get to it.
It doesn't mean never having a bad thought. It means noticing what you allow to live in your head — asking why it's there, and deciding how long it gets to stay. Half an hour? Two hours? That's yours to choose.
Not promises to an app — promises to yourself, small enough to be realistic. Every one you keep is a piece of evidence that you are who you say you are. Stack enough evidence and confidence stops being an act.
Each step prepares the next, and you move when you're ready for the lesson. Purpose isn't rushing to the end — it's building in order, one honest step at a time.
Nobody does this alone, and nobody gets left to figure it out by themselves. Guidance, not orders — the way a good instructor teaches: ask what you know, lead you to the answer, and walk beside you while it becomes yours.
“Guarding your thoughts does not mean never having a bad thought. It means noticing what you allow to live there.” — Gerard Roque
No multiple-choice quiz. When Noka Fit opens, you tell it where you are — in your own words, typed or spoken — and it listens the way Gerard would: for what you say you want, and for what you actually need. Then it meets you on the right path.
Before there was a guide, there was a story. The Unlikely Indian is the memoir Noka Fit is built on — the life that produced the philosophy.
Six to eight months in the writing, a lifetime in the living: golf courses and flight schools, nights with no place to stay but a hangar, and the long road to a home of his own.
The memoir is out first — live on Kindle now, since October 22. Noka Fit follows on January 1 — the story, then the guide it produced.
Kindle ebook — $12.99 on Amazon.ca
Gerard Roque — Ojibwe, of Wanapitei First Nation near Sudbury, Ontario. “Noka” means first bear: in Ojibwe the bear is Makwa, and the first bear is Noka. He chose the name because the first bear goes first.
He's a Class 1 flight instructor who has flown jets across North America. He's also a father, a husband, a teacher, and a dog owner.
He's also a golf superintendent and teaching professional — and a bodybuilder who competed in Cornwall in the 1980s. In early May 2027, at 61 years old, he steps onto a physique stage in Regina to prove the method on himself, in public.
Gerard is an early riser, up without an alarm: quiet thought, stretching and calisthenics, coffee for his wife Angela, breakfast together, a first training block — then the yard, the dogs, and the work, which could include flight testing on behalf of Transport Canada. It's all in chapter fourteen of the book, because he doesn't teach anything he doesn't live.
The name goes back twenty years to Gerard's first German Shepherd. Today's Noka — a long-haired shepherd from West Side Kennels in Moose Jaw, bred for twenty years as family dogs — carries it now, alongside Mims, a rescue from a northern First Nation, and Coco, who supervises from inside the house.
The bear with the spruce trees growing beneath it leads every Noka mark — each one a chapter of Gerard's life, drawn exactly as he described it.
The jet coming off the bear's back is a CF-101 Voodoo — the aircraft Gerard's father served as an airframe technician. The rigid black and red lines are discipline: in flight training, there are no shortcuts. Black is Gerard's favourite colour; red is second.
Behind the bear lies Lake Wanapitei, home waters of Wanapitei First Nation. The O is a golf ball and a golfer swings inside the A — for Gerard the superintendent and teaching professional.
The frame is the Superman diamond — Gerard's favourite superhero — the O is a weight plate, and the barbell runs through it all. This is the mark for everything since: the strength years, and the stage in May.
All three logos by Karen Jones Consulting of North Bay — Gerard gave them the bear, the lake and the concepts, and accepted all three on the first try. The marks sit under the Noka Group of Companies, with Noka Kanawenim — Ojibwe for “Noka cares” — a First Nation charity for kids who need to believe they can be pilots, hockey players, anything — in development.
Here is the season ahead, as planned.
The memoir is out in the world — available now on Kindle, with copies and personal letters headed to readers whose voices carry. The first of the three arrivals.
The wellness guide launches: tell it your story, find your path, and make your first promise — one you can keep.
The Unlikely Indian in print — the full hard launch of the book, three months after the guide opens.
A physique competition in Regina, at 61 — the method, proven on its author, in front of everyone.
Noka Fit opens January 1, 2027. The first people on this list are the founding group — put your name down and you'll be first to know when it opens, and first in when it does. This list is only for launch news — no noise.
“We'll walk this path together.”
Takes a minute. Your name and email go on the waitlist for the January 1, 2027 launch — that's all this list is for. No noise.