In many ways this year’s Wrestling Nova Scotia (WNS) provincial team tryouts looked like they always do—a gym full of determined and excited athletes with coaches guiding them through intense training.
But this year something was different. Something small.
Attached to the shirts of the coaches and WNS board members in attendance were square-shaped moose hide pins. These pins belong to the Moose Hide Campaign, which is a British Columbia-born Indigenous-led grassroots movement to engage men and boys in ending violence towards women and children.
When WNS’s Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility (EDIA) Director Ashley Morgan and President Michael Heilman began their conversations around equity within WNS, they saw the Moose Hide Campaign as an easy way to show their commitment to ensuring wrestling is a safe place for everyone.
“By having our coaches and our board of directors wearing a symbol of allyship and unity, especially because we are a hands-on sport, I think this is just a really small but meaningful way to show up for communities that have been impacted by violence, particularly indigenous communities,” says Ashley.
When the coaches were given the pins that day, for many it was a first-time introduction to the campaign, but Michael says they all read the information cards, quickly pinned them onto their jackets, and started talking about how cool they thought the idea was. Board members were happy to see this, as it was important to them that the pins act as an educational tool and conversation starter.
In the future they hope to roll out the pins to additional authority figures within the organization, with a focus on having them be intentionally visible at competitions.
The Moose Hide Campaign is just one way that WNS is trying to make sure that their members feel like they belong.
The organization recently created a Sense of Belonging Index, which allowed athletes to anonymously report on their wrestling experiences, including things like feeling emotionally safe, if they feel their identity and background are being respected and if they see themselves represented in leadership. They were also able to share self-identifying information like race, gender, indigeneity and if they are a member of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, but were not required to do so.
“By creating this survey and collecting data, we will be able to identify where the barriers are for specific athletes if they choose to self-identify,” says Ashley. “By collecting data we’ll know who is in our clubs, who is not in our clubs. And then we can start asking the question, well, why aren’t they there? And what can we do to support them? How can we remove that barrier?”
WNS has also started using a Provincial Community Access Model to help them bring wrestling directly to African Nova Scotian communities within the Halifax Regional Municipality. Before the new year they will be hosting three different events with partner schools, reaching five historic African Nova Scotian communities.
The first one was already held at Dartmouth’s Caledonia Junior High in early October during the school’s lunch period. More than 20 students took part and were given a non-contact introduction to the sport. Afterwards they were given information cards about clubs in the city.
“We have coaches that have volunteered their time. We have community businesses that are contributing snacks, lunches and swag so that when kids show up to these sessions in a building they know, with gym teachers they know, with other people that they’re already familiar with, they’re leaving with a good feeling,” says Ashley.
WNS is currently looking at plans to take their try-it events outside of the Halifax Regional Municipality in 2027.
