Moose Hide Campaign calls for end of gender-based violence

CNC and many others across Canada dedicated today (Thursday) to calling attention to the Moose Hide Campaign.

The college held events at its Prince George, Quesnel, and Burns Lake campuses.

In Canada, Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people are victims of gender-based violence at a much higher rate than non-Indigenous people.

The Moose Hide Campaign aims to put an end to gender-based violence, honour victims and their families, and provide a platform for Indigenous voices and stories.

The Moose Hide Campaign was founded in 2011 by Paul and Raven Lacerte who were hunting moose near the Highway of Tears, where dozens of women have gone missing or been found murdered.

As they were skinning the moose, Raven’s father started thinking about the sorrow that the highway had brought to so many families and communities, and the challenges that many girls and women face.

They decided to dedicate the moose hide as a symbol of taking a stand against violence and undoing the effects of Residential Schools.

William Gottschall, a 12-year faculty member in sociology, anthropology, criminology and women’s studies at CNC’s Prince George campus, was one of today’s speakers.

“It is a call to get men and boys involved,” he told My PG Now.

Gottschall said he was part of a small team of people that toured campus this morning asking people if they knew what the campaign was, and was disappointed by the result.

“Many did not know. It is important to educate and keep the word alive, keep the fight going to end the violence against women and make men and boys agents of change,” he said.

“Men and boys are in the conversation. It is a women’s issue, a public health issue, and a societal issue,” he said. “It is forcing men to confront negative male behaviors, critically analyze behaviors, and encouraging knowledge around men and boys.”

You can learn more about the Moose Hide Campaign here.

– With files from George Henderson, My Cariboo Now