Violence Committed Against Aboriginal Women : Whose Violence? The Solution to End it Lies Within

"When we're hunting moose, we're also looking for human remains because there are so many missing and murdered women along that highway. A lot of those logging roads we go down are exactly the same kinds of places where those women's remains are found."
"We got a moose that morning [In 2001]. We had been talking about the Highway of Tears [Highway 16, northern British Columbia] and Raven said, 'You know Dad, I wish there was a way that we could wipe away some of those tears'."
"Like a lot of guys in this country, I grew up in the home of a violent, alcoholic father. That's the story of so many guys who are in jail or who are struggling. When they were little, their dad would drink and beat them up."
"It's almost as simple as it gets for some of the domestic violence cycles in Canada."
Paul Lacerte, Yinka Dene, Carrier First Nation, northern British Columbia

"It's a reality for a young Indigenous woman like me that life is not as safe. I've heard the stories of murdered and missing Indigenous women all my life."
"Our family is close and connected. I knew that we could get together and make something happen and make a difference."
Raven Lacerte, northern British Columbia

Raven had been out moose-hunting with her father Paul when she was 16, seven years ago. They had been talking about the dread menace hanging over aboriginal girls and women of violence and violence that at times becomes lethal. The pair travelled along the infamous 'Highway of Tears', Highway 16, where the reality is that up to thirty Indigenous women are known to have disappeared, never seen again alive. And this tragic reality was in teenage Raven's mind while she was cleaning the moose they had bagged.

The thought occurred to her while cleaning the moose hide that it could be made into a symbol of a new awareness campaign they would launch. They called their campaign the Moose Hide Campaign and it couldn't have been more grass rooted in origin than in the mind of a 16-year-old haunted by the thought of psychopathic violence that harms, injures and kills women like herself. Raven and her three sisters cut the hide into small squares and set to work producing 25,000 cards they hand-lettered, explaining the significance of the hide squares.

Their campaign has swept into the consciousness of Indigenous people with its initiative to persuade boys and men, Indigenous and non-Native to commit themselves to taking a personal position to prevent violence against women. The Lacerte family recently brought awareness of their campaign to Parliament Hill in Ottawa, a yearly ritual. In the space of seven years they had managed to proliferate over 1.2 million of the moose hide patches distributed in over 350 communities.

They engaged with local Ottawa and area high school and post-secondary students, who set out to pledge themselves to upholding a day-long fast in a demonstration of their own commitment to see an end to violence committed against women. Their campaign led politicians, as they are wont to do, in supporting obvious public-good campaigns to show their 'progressive' bona fides, to come out in support of this initiative of awareness, education and commitment.

Raven Lacerte, co-founder of the Moose Hide Campaign, raises her fist on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Oct. 18, 2018. Photo by Alex Tétreault

And so, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Affairs Carolyn Bennett, addressed a crowd of several hundred on Parliament Hill, speaking of the inter-generational phenomenon of violence against women, and inevitably linking it to the legacy of the residential school system now a topic of incendiary condemnation against the-then colonialist 19th century government that had initiated a project to remove aboriginal children from their families and educate them in the ways of the white folk at custodial schools. Much like, in fact, the upper-crust British 'public' school system.

Absolutely everything recognized as First Nations troubles, from addiction to child neglect, criminal activity to an inherited welfare syndrome, all the malfunctions and dysfunctions of a people seemingly incapable of adjusting to ordinary life in a democratic system, to be responsible for their own well-being, to respect the law, to engage in generalized social life, to be gainfully employed, to be responsible for raising healthy, educated children -- is now attributed to the 'trauma' imposed by the residential schools system.

Sage Lacerte, national youth ambassador for the Moose Hide Campaign, on Parliament Hill on Oct. 18, 2018. Photo by Alex Tétreault

A trauma that has lingered and festered generation after generation, explaining why it is that more First Nations children are removed from the bosoms of their incapacitated family to be given shelter and presumably opportunities by public welfare agencies, and that aboriginals are over-represented in Canadian prisons in comparison to their numbers in the general population, and that alcohol and drug addictions consume too many First Nations lives, all attributable by default to their grandparents having been placed in residential schools.

The violence committed against Indigenous women is commonplace and horrendous. And although there is the prevalence of hostility and discrimination from wider society against First Nations people, a human rights crime in and of itself, much of the contempt in which they are held would without a doubt dissipate were they viewed as willing and able to integrate into general society. First Nations people have a proud past and they should regard that with pride and dignity. There is a way to fight bigotry and seek the justice owing them through their own efforts.

But as long as their communities, with the support of a sympathetic broader public continue to deny that most of the violence committed against girls and women come from within their own communities, not those outside them, and insist on attributing that violence to the lingering after-effects of the residential school systems and the degrading loss of self-esteem, nothing will be accomplished. They have indeed suffered viral discrimination. But they have also spurned opportunities to shed the past and embrace a presence as unhyphenated Canadians.

The transition from a dependent people insisting they represent an entirely different set of "nations" within the greater nation of Canada which does them no favours, is past due. Victimhood and resentment cannot forever mark their destiny, but it will unless they take the mature steps required to shed the dependency of federal handouts to finally assume their rightful place in the Canada that has prospered by absorbing people whose goal is simply to be Canadian and in the process take advantage of all opportunities that status offers them.

Our Goal is to end violence towards women and children. To help achieve this, the Moose Hide Campaign will distribute 10 Million Moose Hide squares across Canada.

• We will stand up with women and children and we will speak out against violence towards them.
• We will support each other as men and we will hold each other accountable.
• We will teach our young boys about the true meaning of love and respect, and we will be healthy role models for them.
• We will heal ourselves as men and we will support our brothers on their healing journey.
• We encourage you to Take Action, Make the pledge, and Stand up to end violence towards women and children.