On Nov. 16, the TRUSU Equity Committee hosted a table on Student Street in Old Main to distribute moose hide pins and promote the Moose Hide Campaign Day, which will take place on May 16, 2024.
“The Moose Hide Campaign is about standing up in solidarity, standing up as a community against domestic violence happening to women and children,” said Samikshya Paudel, committee vice-president.
“Around six thousand women and children every day across Canada stay in shelters trying to stay safe from domestic abuse and violence, so that’s essentially where the Moosehide Campaign started,” she said.
The campaign began over 10 years ago along the Highway of Tears, a 724-kilometre stretch of the Yellowhead Highway (Highway 16), where many women — most of whom were Indigenous — have gone missing or been murdered.
The Moose Hide Campaign started as a B.C.-born, Indigenous-led grassroots movement that encourages men and boys to stand in solidarity and oppose violence towards women and children.
According to the campaign:
- Half of all women in Canada have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16;
- Spousal violence of Indigenous women is three times higher than non-Indigenous women;
- A woman or girl is murdered every two and a half days in Canada; and
- Indigenous women are killed at six times the rate of non-Indigenous women.
The Moose Hide Campaign acknowledges violence, in all its forms, is unacceptable, regardless of gender. They note that a disproportionate number of women are victims of such violence and that men and boys must be engaged to address this issue.
“It is a grassroots movement,” Paudel said. “[The Moosehide Campaign] is an awareness campaign, standing in solidarity. It [was] started by Indigenous and non-Indigenous men and boys who want to raise their voices against domestic violence.”
“For us, it’s not just something we want to talk about for one day,” Paudel said. “We want to keep raising awareness, keep educating people, keep people aware of what’s happening around and what it signifies.”
The Moose Hide Campaign will host a Sharing Circle on May 11, 2024, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. in TRU’s Brown Family House of Learning (HL 190). All are welcome to attend and watch a live stream broadcast of the Walk to End Violence, streamed live from the lawn of the Legislative Assembly in Victoria, BC.