Moose Hide as Medicine
Young men joining the campaign to end violence against women and children.
The Moose Hide Campaign is an Indigenous-led grassroots campaign initiated over a decade ago in northern BC. It's devoted to bringing men and boys into the challenge of ending violence against women and children.
Founded in traditional ceremony and ways of knowing and learning of the Carrier people, the nation of its co-founders Paul and Raven Lacerte, the campaign now involves over 400,000 people. In the traditions of the Carrier people the moose represents strength, and when a moose is hunted they are said to be giving the hunters a gift. The gift is of food for the winter months, and the strength and wisdom that the moose represents. Through distributing moose hide pins to people all across the country, the campaign is extending that gift, and its medicine for our spirt, to all of us too.
May 11th is Moose Hide Campaign Day. It’s a day worth marking with reflection and action. We should reflect on what we can do to end violence against women and children and take action on that goal. Maybe what you do is speak to someone about it. Or maybe you join the campaign by participating in the fast. Or maybe you spend some time alone, taking care of yourself – your body, your mind, your spirit – so that you can take a different kind of action on another day.
The Moose Hide Campaign originated in north central BC, where there is a highway that connects Prince George to Prince Rupert. It is known as the Highway of Tears, because hundreds (possibly thousands) of women have gone missing or have been found murdered somewhere along that highway.
A family chose to do something about it. The campaign is what they did. It started with a conversation on the annual moose hunt, a hunt that is a harvesting of food for the family over winter. It was a father-daughter hunt. The father (Paul Lacerte) had just been at a conference that was focused on violence against women. He looked around the room and saw only a few other men, out of 250 people attending. He wondered where all the men were in this work to end gender-based violence.
He wanted his daughter Raven to have a life of dignity and love. She wanted the same for herself. They chose to take the gift of strength and wisdom that the moose represents in their culture, and to use that gift as medicine that they would share with others, to remind us all to love one another and to build a future of caring and goodness.
To do this Raven and her sisters cured the moose hide and cut it into small squares that they put safety pins through. Using the pin, they attached handwritten notes explaining that the square is a symbol of commitment to creating a world free of violence against women and children. Raven would wear her pin and give out pins to people who asked her about it. Quickly it became a source of conversation in her community. When others learned about it, they joined the conversation and commitment.
In 2022 the Campaign had over 400,000 people (Indigenous and non-Indigenous) across Canada participating, with communities engaging in a variety of ways. The Campaign is an Indigenous-led grassroots effort, which is grounded in ceremony and traditional ways of learning and healing. Its goal is not to name, blame and shame, but to heal and grow together as local communities and as a broader society, to become that caring and good society.
You can join the Campaign by visiting MooseHideCampaign.ca and exploring the schedule of virtual events. There is a sunrise ceremony, followed by fasting (for those who have chosen to do so), keynote speeches and workshops. You can participate in as much or as little as you’d like.
A quick word about fasting: the notion of the fast is to connect more fully, and in an embodied way, with the struggle of healing and learning. It can also mean connecting with the hurt and suffering faced by women and children who are living lives impacted by violence. We experience some small pain, reflecting on the Campaign and all it means.
Join us at Alternatives for Women on Moose Hide Campaign Day and commit to building that better world without violence against women and children.
The Prime Minister met with the co-founders of the Moose Hide Campaign, Paul and Raven Lacerte, on April 26th of this year. This is symbolic of all the boys and men that the Moose Hide Campaign is trying to reach, to invite them into the commitment to building a better world with an end to violence against women and children.
