The Lesson of the Moose

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/03/2003 (8231 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Friday was the International Day for the Elimination of Discrimination. This column is a first nations reflection on that event.

Teaching in the aboriginal world is done through metaphors and stories that either directly or indirectly teach a lesson.

I recall asking my father what I thought was a simple question. He sat back and began. “In 1931 your grandfather…” I knew I was in for a long answer.

The reason for this type of teaching is to avoid being preachy or didactic. The story must be timeless and make the listener think and remember. I heard one recently that teaches about brotherly love, but it does it in our own unique way.

The story is about Wesakechak, who was the emissary of the Creator. He was sent down to Earth to create the animals and people that would inherit the new land created by the Almighty. The stories of Wesakechak are shared with other cultures — the Ojibway have Nanabush and the Blackfoot have Napi. He is the same individual but the stories are told in a different language.

The first nations creation story is one of trial and error. The individual features of each animal are there because Wesakechak made it either through accident or design. Stories are told of how the different animals interacted with each other and how they developed strange characteristics. This is a far cry from the serious creation story in the Bible and, in a way, reflects the comparative irreverence of first nations people when set against the rather more uptight Judeo-Christian world view.

Wesakechak was a person with human weaknesses and a sense of humour, and many of his creations reflected this. When Wesakechak had finished creating all the animals of the Earth he looked around and found some spare parts that hadn’t been used. He found a large floppy coat of dark hair. There was a large nose, two floppy ears, some long legs and a set of large flat antlers.

He took these odds and ends and created the last animal. He wasn’t sure what it was but, after he got it together, he gave it life and it walked around admiring itself. The animal was a moose, and he was very proud about the way he looked. He had a beautiful black coat, two wonderful ears, tall legs and a lovely rack of flat antlers.

The moose went down to the lake, admired himself in the reflection of the water and was very pleased. But the other animals were not so kind. They laughed at him and called him ugly and clumsy. They made fun of his flat antlers and large nose.

The moose was devastated. He thought that he looked just fine and here were all the other animals laughing at him — Rabbit, with his long ears and big feet; Beaver, with his funny flat tail and large teeth; and Pelican, with his large bill. Why should they laugh at him when they looked just as funny?

But the poor moose continued to be teased and laughed at by the other animals. So he told them, “I will go away and live in dark swampy places by myself.” And so he went deep into the forest and lived by himself in dark damp places.

Today, if you want to find a moose you have to go into the forest and find a secluded, swampy area. He lives alone and doesn’t even associate with other large animals that live in herds like the elk or caribou.

This story is told so our children can see the damage that teasing and prejudice does to other people. He was only a moose, but he had feelings and the riducule changed his way of life forever.

It is also a story of tolerance towards people from other races and backgrounds. Racism hurts, and those who suffer its sting often want to withdraw from the world and go where they can be by themselves.

The reaction of the moose to prejudice was normal, and his story serves as a lesson to us all.

Doug Cuthand is a freelance writer in Saskatoon.