Yesterday at City Hall, it was declared that this Thursday, Oct. 18th, 2018, would be known as Moose Hide Campaign Day.

The Moose Hide Campaign is being celebrated for the first time in the city of Timmins as a marked day of awareness.

The campaign is aimed at indigenous and non-indigenous men to end violence against women and children.

Pierre Belec, Kind Man Coordinator at the Timmins Native Friendship Centre, says the campaign’s name is a part of its long history.

“It started with a father and daughter in British Columbia,” Belec said, “on the Highway of Tears. They, from my memory, they found a moose on the side of the highway and they decided to use the hide from that to start this campaign.”

The Moose Hide Day campaign takes place this Thursday, Oct. 18th, when men will be participating in a fast.

“We will be doing a fast,” Belec said, “we’re getting the men to do the fast as a silent protest to end violence. There’s a lot of systemic things in place that promote the perpetrator instead of helping the victim.”

The fast starts at 7 in the morning on Thursday and ends with a feast at around 7 in the evening.

The events taking place this Thursday are open to everyone and will be happening in the gym at the Timmins Native Friendship Centre, from 7am to 7pm. Booths will be set up and there will be 4-5 speakers coming in. There will be traditional drummers, a sacred fire and maybe even a teepee.

Belec says this event is important, not only for men, but for the whole community.

“Violence is big in our community,” he said, “so we want to make people aware that men have to be allied with our women and our children to end the violence. If we can get more men coming forward and change society, we’ll have a better world for everyone. We’ll have better sons, better daughters.”

Even though this is the first time the event has been recognized as a community-wide campaign, Belec says the Native Friendship Centre has been doing it for year and hopes to continue in the future.

“We’ve been doing it at the Centre,” he said, “but this is the first time we’ve been a part of the National event. We’re hoping to do it for years to come.”

Belec says his goals for the future are simply to get people talking about it.

“Just for people to talk,” Belec said, “right now it’s to have the conversation. It’s our first year. We don’t really have expectations. We do have some men who have volunteered to be a part of the fast, which is a great start. And then we’re hoping as years go on, we get more and more traction.”

You can join the Moose Hide Campaign events taking place this Thursday, Oct. 18th, and the Timmins Native Friendship Centre Gym. Drop in anytime between 7am and 7pm.

 

Filed under: Local News