Thompson Rivers University hosts Moose Hide Campaign event to shed light on gender-based violence

KAMLOOPS — Across Canada, one in two women has experienced an incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16. Indigenous women are three times more likely to experience spousal abuse than non-Indigenous women. Those are just some of the issues the Moose Hide Campaign is working to address.

“I think today is about reaching out to all men,” explained TRU Social Work student Perry Erickson. “This is for men to stand up and be honest with themselves, to take accountability for our own actions. The way we think. We need to be able to walk in a good way, talk in a good way.”

The Moose Hide Campaign was founded by Paul and Raven Lacerte while out hunting moose in Northern BC. They were inspired to draw attention to the issue of violence against women, in part due to their proximity to the Highway of Tears. The hide of the moose they harvested became the symbol of the movement.

“Each moose hide, you get about 10,000 squares, something like that,” Erickson tells CFJC Today. “It was almost borderline like a sweatshop, but that kind of commitment from his family is something to admire because they wanted this to happen. And their vision, it’s spreading.”The goal of the campaign is to gift 10 million moose hide pins, the symbol of the movement, in order to spark conversation around the topic of violence.

“One in four women at universities will be sexually assaulted before they graduate. It’s just — it’s something to think about,” says Nathan Matthew, TRU Chancellor. “And I think something to be aware of, but to make a commitment to doing something in our families and our relationships with our young men.”

Matthew was also Chief of the Simpcw First Nation. He sees the disproportionate violence that occurs against Indigenous women as one obstacle to true reconciliation.

“It’s important, as Indigenous people,” Matthew says. “If we go where we want to go as people, and be well and healthy, and to do all the things we want to, in terms of self-governance and being independent, then this is sorry of things we have to attend to.”

For more information on the campaign, you can visit www.moosehidecampaign.ca.