Moose Hide Campaign Inspires Men to Become Involved in the Movement to End Gender-Based Violence

It is so beautiful to see the numerous initiatives around the world to help women who face violence in its various forms.

Canada is not immune to violence against women, and those who are most likely to be victims of it are Indigenous women. In fact, Indigenous women are three times more likely to experience domestic violence and three times more likely to be killed by someone they know. Too many of our wives, daughters, sisters, aunties, mothers, grandmothers are not safe in their own home. Too many have been murdered or are missing.

This cycle of violence came from residential schools, racism against Indigenous peoples, and colonization. It was never in their culture to do violence to women and children. In their teachings, they give extreme value to the importance of their responsibility to protect everything that is feminine: women, medicine, Mother-Earth, etc.

Many efforts, projects, and strategies are now under-way throughout the country to change this reality, among which the “Moose Hide Campaign”.

How it started

On an early 2011 August morning, an Indigenous man named Paul Lacerte and his daughter Raven were hunting moose near the infamous Highway of Tears, a section of highway between Prince George and Prince Rupert, in the province of British-Columbia, where dozens of women have gone missing or been found murdered. They had brought down a moose that would help feed the family for the winter and provide a moose hide for cultural purposes. As the daughter was skinning the moose her father started thinking…They were so near the highway that has brought so much sorrow to the communities along its endless miles, here with his young daughter who deserved a life free of violence…That’s when the idea sprang to life! What if they used the moose hide to inspire men to become involved in the movement to end violence towards women and children? Together with family and friends they cut up the moose hide into small squares and started the Moose Hide Campaign. Wearing the moose hide signifies a commitment to honour, respect, and protect the women and children in your life and to work together to end gender-based violence.

Now, seven years later, more than 1,000,000 squares of moose hide have been distributed and the Moose Hide Campaign has spread to communities and organizations across Canada. Local campaigns have started in government offices, in colleges and universities, on First Nations reserves, in Friendship Centres, in community organizations, and within individual families.

Similar to the commitment that the moose hide represents, the global Thursdays in Black campaign encourages individuals to wear black/wear a pin on Thursdays to declare they are a part of the movement resisting attitudes and practices that permit rape and violence. This violence is frequently hidden, and victims are often silent, fearing stigma and further violence. RfP is proud to be a participant of the global Thursdays in Black campaign, as well as help raise awareness of the Moose Hide Campaign.

We all have a responsibility to speak out against violence, to ensure that women and men, boys and girls, are safe from rape and violence in homes, schools, work, streets – in all places in our societies.

Because, as they say at Moose Hide Campaign: “Silence is not good enough.”

To get more info about Moose Hide Campaign: https://moosehidecampaign.ca/