tansi ninôtemik,
The ReconciliACTION team has previously discussed the R v Skibicki case from 2024, wherein a serial killer murdered four Indigenous women, specifically targeting them because of their Indigeneity.[1] The Skibicki case, unfortunately, is not an isolated incident. Highway 16 in British Columbia is known as the “Highway of Tears” because of the uncertain, but high, number of Indigenous women who have gone missing along the highway.[2] The police problematically responded to this issue by placing billboards advising against hitchhiking, which was the primary mode of transportation for the victims when they went missing.[3] While law enforcement measures have focused on preventing crime, they place the onus on the victims to somehow avoid perpetrators while also further restricting Indigenous women’s movement.[4]
In the Skibicki case, the Justice explained that the criminal justice system only offers limited remedies based on limited factual questions falling within the law; he explained that the criminal justice system is equipped for “attainable justice.”[5] How can meaningful justice be achieved? Can we consider gendered and racial violence a preventable issue? Activism is a way of solving legal issues through a different focus, one that seeks to change the minds and ideologies of those who might commit acts of violence against girls and women if the current mentalities continue.
The Moose Hide Campaign is an excellent example of grassroots activism founded by Indigenous people. The Moose Hide Campaign began in British Columbia with a purpose of engaging men and boys in ending violence against women and children.[6] The Moose Hide Campaign is now a movement across Canada involving both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.[7] There is now an annual Moose Hide Campaign day ceremony and fast.[8] If you would like to take a stand against gendered violence, May 15, 2025 is this year’s Moose Hide Campaign day.[9]
An important part of the Moose Hide Campaign is the Moose Hide pin, which signifies the wearer’s commitment to honouring, protecting, and respecting the women and children in their life as well as taking a stand against gender-based violence.[10] One of the benefits of participating in the Moose Hide Campaign by wearing a pin or participating in the annual ceremony is the promotion of healthy masculinity.[11] The campaign’s message is meant to guide generations of boys and men towards respect and nonviolence.[12]
When the founders of the Campaign, Paul and his daughter Raven, were hunting moose to feed their family and utilize the moose for cultural purposes, Paul became inspired to begin the Moose Hide Campaign.[13] Residential schools had attempted to erase the tradition of hunting moose, and the Moose Hide Campaign was a way to address the legacies of colonialism.[14] The Highway of Tears lies in the same territory that Paul and Raven hunted moose.[15]
Does public awareness and education have the potential to create cultures of healthy masculinity? When the legal system is unable or unwilling to provide adequate solutions to problems like gendered violence, what other avenues of change are available?
ekosi.
The ReconciliACTION Team
Citations
[1] R v Skibicki, 2024 MBKB 113 at para 513.
[2] Katherine Morton, “Hitchhiking and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Billboards on the Highway of Tears,” (2016) 41:3 The Canadian Journal of Sociology at 300, https://www.jstor.org/stable/canajsocicahican.41.3.299.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Supra note 1 at para 510-511.
[6] “Moose Hide Campaign”, online: <https://moosehidecampaign.ca/>.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ibid.
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