The Moccasin Identifier™ is an initiative aimed at reshaping Canada’s landscape by fostering a deeper understanding of First Nations relationship to the land. For hundreds of years, First Nation presence has been deliberately erased from our collective consciousness. Now, The Moccasin Identifier™ seeks to restore harmony by covering Canada in moccasins, symbolizing a commitment to acknowledging and honouring everyone’s Treaty responsibilities. Our installations serve as powerful reminders of the Territories we inhabit, work on, and play in, prompting individuals to cultivate mutually respectful relationships with First Nations communities. By partnering and investing in The Moccasin Identifier™, organizations can align themselves with a movement dedicated to promoting cultural awareness, environmental stewardship, and the advancement of Indigenous rights and reconciliation.
Moccasin Identifier’s Place-Knowing installations come in three complementary types—Treaty Places, Treaty Markers, and Treaty Signage—each designed for a different scale and setting. Together they form a connected network of visible reminders: Treaty Places act as landmark gathering and learning sites, Treaty Markers identify and interpret locations of Treaty significance, and Treaty Signage provides compact, everyday entry points to Treaty awareness. Collectively they transform public landscapes into ongoing classrooms that acknowledge Indigenous presence and invite people to learn, reflect, and act.
Treaty Signage
A standardized, smaller-scale sign placed indoors or outdoors to acknowledge the local Treaty and Indigenous Nations. It offers accessible entry points to Treaty awareness and forms part of MI’s national network of reconciliation sites.
Treaty Marker
Mid-sized installations that identify significant locations tied to Treaty history or Indigenous presence. They provide clear visual recognition of the territory and encourage ongoing learning through interpretive text or digital links. Often used as way-finding markers leading to Treaty Places. Also used in elementary and secondary schools.
Treaty Place
Larger, landmark, custom-designed installations that serve as a central gathering or learning space for Treaty education and community engagement. They connect visitors to the local Treaty story through art, signage, and interactive elements.
Our four installation types — Education (school and campus learning sites), Green (parks, shorelines and natural landscapes), Go (transit, trail and wayfinding locations), and Urban (streetscapes, plazas and civic spaces) — bring Treaty knowledge into classrooms, parks, transit corridors and city streets as visible reminders of Indigenous presence and our shared responsibility to the land.
Why Moccasin Identifier Installations Matter
Education that sticks.
Installations complement MI’s curriculum and workshops, connecting classroom learning to a visible public reminder that helps people of all ages understand Treaties, land relationships, and their responsibilities as Treaty people.
A visible commitment to reconciliation.
Moccasin Identifier installations are designed to make Truth and Reconciliation work public and persistent — not a one-off conversation, but a landscape of reminders that promote reflection and responsibility. MI explicitly supports the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Community connection and cultural respect.
Installations create safe spaces for stories, gatherings, and learning, strengthening relationships between Indigenous communities, municipal partners, schools, and the public. MI’s network of installations links cities, schools, parks, and institutions across the country.
Sustainable impact.
A license-based model funds ongoing education, cultural programming, and stewardship so installations remain living sites of learning and action over time. Partners also receive support (stencils, design guidance, public recognition, and co-delivered events) that amplifies local impact.