FIT FOR A KING
Carolyn King, former chief of Mississaugas of First Credit, started Moccasin Identifier project
Carolyn King, former elected chief of Mississaugas of the Credit, seen with one of the moccasin representations that have been helping to signal and illuminate Indigenous presence, both cultural and geographical, all through Ontario and beyond. She was recently inducted into the Order of Canada.
Carolyn King knew that she, no, her people, had to put their foot down, and that meant putting their best foot forward, for all to see and better understand.
When they did, that foot was figuratively wearing a moccasin, of course, and it made a large step — in the right direction.
Right direction, indeed. When the Moccasin Identifier project began people took notice, which was exactly the idea. A foot was put down, and forward, and then another and another.
Now, the Moccasin Identifier project has permeated the education system in this province. Not only is it part of the curriculum in many schools, both elementary and secondary, but this past November, during Treaties Recognition week, it was announced that a Moccasin Identifier tool kit for educators had been developed and was being introduced. So, now teachers can teach it even better.
Another step, in the right direction.
To cap off a big year for the project, there was another development. Just before Christmas, Carolyn King, the former elected chief of the Mississaugas of the First Credit and the woman who came up with the idea for the Moccasin Identifier project, learned she is being inducted in the Order of Canada.
“They phoned to ask me if I would accept,” says Carolyn, adding, with laughter in her voice, “so I said, ‘I guess.’”
There is a breakout quote from Carolyn showing prominently at the top of the Moccasin Identifier project webpage. It expresses the put-our-foot-down urgency of the need for some way to make the First Nations presence and identity much more unignorable, both geographically and culturally.
“If we, as First Nations people, don’t get a marker on the ground today, we will be lost forever.”
Now, largely thanks to Carolyn and her efforts, there are and have been images, shapes and imprints of moccasins, both permanent and temporary, cropping up all over the province of Ontario. They have been happening since 2011when the project began. Soon after it started, the project was introduced to the schools.
The project emerged from a kind of irony, one might say, that did not escape Carolyn. She had been working with a team on using digital technology to put dots on Google maps showing lands and landmarks and points of interest pertaining to the Mississaugas of the First Credit.
A lot of research went into it with the idea of people getting off the road and exploring these areas marked by online dots.
“But at our annual historical gathering a question came from the floor: ‘What would I see?’ (if they went to the dot, in physical space, and looked around), and the answer was, ‘Probably nothing.’
“Everything has been dug up and dug over.” And what about people who don’t have a smartphone?
No, they realized something had to presented in physical space, which is where the First Nations lived and still live.
“We needed a plaquing program, something tangible,” recalls Carolyn. A marker on the ground to put in different places to signal First Nations presence and contribution.
“We needed wording and a symbol, but what symbol? We thought of the eagle feather but it is too sacred to be walked on.” Then it hit. Of course, the moccasin.
With much help and consultation, including from the famous Bata Shoe Museum, Carolyn and the team came up wit a kind of stencil that could be used on sidewalks and other surfaces to shape moccasins on the ground or on walls, with chalk, paint or other media.
She did all this in partnership with Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and the The Greenbelt Foundation, to promote public awareness of significant cultural historic sites and the ancestral presence of
“If we, as First Nations people, don’t get a marker on the ground today, we will be lost forever.” CAROLYN KING
First Nations, Métis and Indigenous Communities.
It started in 2011 and she and others have been doing it ever since, expanding on the original vision. They were constantly being asked to produce more stencils, then it got made into a kit for the schools and students would make moccasins at their tables and desks, and they’d be used in lesson plans.
More permanent moccasins and markers have been placed in institutional settings like universities, historical attractions such as Fort York and entertainment venues such as Ontario Place.
And who’s to credit? The irrepressible Carolyn King, new recruit to the Order of Canada — her footprints are all over it.
For more on Moccasin Identifier project, see moccasinidentifier.com
Carolyn King, former chief of Mississaugas of the Credit, holds her eagle feather, one of two she was presented. She developed the now much celebrated Moccasin project which encourages communities to mark aboriginal land wth imprints of moccasins, either in concrete or temporarily.