The Moccasin Identifier Project

Do you know the real history of Ontario? Moccasin Identifier is a great first step to learning more about the history of this land.

Formed in 2011 by former Chief Carolyn King, C.M., the Moccasin Identifier is a reconciliation tool, to help NonIndigenous Canadians understand whose land they’re on, and to understand the Indigenous people that were here for millennia prior to colonization. Inspired by the life and vision of Nahnebahwequay, a 19th century AnishinaabeKwe (Mississauga Credit) Indigenous Rights Leader, Carolyn stated that “If we as First Nations People don’t get a marker on the ground today, we’ll be lost forever!”

It was Nahnebahwequay’s (English name; Catherine Sutton) homestead that was slated to be developed that prompted Carolyn and others, concerned over the loss of this important figure’s history, to develop a marker on the land to preserve awareness of Indigenous history on the landscape. It took Carolyn three days to determine a culturally appropriate marker - our footwear! From there, the Moccasin Identifier was born.

Reflective of culture and Indigenous diversity in design, moccasins' footprints have always covered the landscape. The concept of footwear led to the Bata Shoe Museum, where, by invitation, Carolyn visited the world’s largest private circumpolar collection of Indigenous footwear. Afterwards, renowned Anishinaabe artist Philip Cote took photos of the century-old moccasins and created stencils from the collection’s Anishinaabe, Cree, Seneca and Huron-Wendat moccasins. These moccasins stencils represent the linguistic diversity of Ontario and are incorporated into the Moccasin Identifier kit, available for sale online, where all the proceeds go towards sustaining the non-for-profit initiative.

Since 2018 Moccasin Identifier has grown from a grassroots initiative to major milestones and is continually growing each month.

Please help us cover Canada in Moccasins! For more information, The Moccasin Identifier kit contains two components: the curriculum and the stencils. The curriculum aims to educate children through easily accessible lesson plans and activities from grades 1 to 8. This curriculum was created in accordance with Ontario provincial curriculum standards. Each grade also contains a listing of resources for teacher use. The stencils are meant to serve as a fun interactive activity for children to ground their learning. The curriculum is available to download for free on the Moccasin Identifier website.

The vision is to cover Canada in moccasins. The first meaningful step to achieving this vision is to get a Moccasin Identifier kit in every school in Ontario so that children will grow up with more than just a colonial reference to land in their lives and instead have a deeper understanding of the land they live on, and what it means to be in relationship with the land, and with each other, as Treaty partners. This is the Moccasin Identifier’s hope for reconciliation in the future.

Join us in achieving our vision to realize a future for reconciliation through education. As stated by Murray Sinclair, it’s education that got us into this mess and it's education that will get us out of it!

Visit www.moccasinidentifier.com or visit The Moccasin Identifier’s Twitter and Facebook accounts to learn more. z