Wayne McKay's Story
as artists tend to do. This soon transitioned to Minna telling me about Moomins. She told me about Moomintroll, Snufkin, Little My and all the other characters created by Tove Jansson. As a Canadian, I had never heard of these characters. As she described each one, I started to paint a picture in my mind of the world of Moomin Valley, and I started to dream of one day visiting Finland. At the end of this trip, she gave me a copy of Tales From Moomin Valley. I read and re-read the stories and was captivated by the incredible inhabitants of this new world,d which was opened up to me.
Years later, I would read the stories of Moomins that I had grown to love to my own children at bedtime. I ordered new Moomin books and read those, but I also read the tales from the original book that Minna had given to me. By this time, I had read it so much that the pages were falling out.
Fast forward to 2025. I found myself working at the NSCC Sydney Waterfront Campus.
My daughters were now teenagers, and I had spent the last two decades of my career working in education and recreation with a focus on creating more inclusive spaces and creating communities that are more supportive of lifelong physical activity.
When the opportunity to travel to Finland to support NSCC students in the BIDS Inclusion Program popped up in my email, I jumped at the opportunity. It combined my decades-long desire to travel to Finland, my passion for inclusion and the opportunity to experience the excellent community design in Oulu, Finland. I was honoured to be selected to support Isaac and Kaylynn, two wonderful NSCC students from opposite ends of the province, on this once-in-a-lifetime experience. We also travelled with Valessa, who is the NSCC International Project Coordinator.
After a long and challenging flight, we arrived at Oulu airport. To my great delight, the first thing we saw upon arrival was a Moomin store. All
of the characters I had grown to love greeted us as we arrived. I had left a country where few others had ever heard of Moomins and arrived in a place where these characters were central to the culture.
The Moomins would become a central theme of this adventure. Our first session of the BIDS Inclusion Program was focused on learning about inclusive practice from the Moomin stories. This made it easy to understand why the Finnish culture has developed into one that values equity
and leaving no one behind. The values are embedded in Tove Jansson's storytelling. The Moomin stories often focus on the importance of getting to know individuals in meaningful ways, especially those individuals who seem different or who are misunderstood. Through getting to know the individual, you see them in a different light and learn about the good qualities they bring. You also learn what supports they need to be successful and visible as part of society.
We watched the video of the Moomin story about the Invisible Girl. The story perfectly embodies ideals of inclusion. Once the girl feels safe and supported, with what she needs to be successful, she is no longer invisible and reveals her true self to the Moomins, who have provided that support. This, for me, was the perfect way to start this adventure and fulfilled my lifelong dream of coming to Finland and learning more about the Moomins in Finnish culture.
Our hosts embodied this spirit as well – the spirit that seems to permeate Finland and the tale of the Moomins. A few moments stick out. Going to the Arctic Circle and meeting Santa Claus. This Santa Claus was not the “Ho, Ho, Ho, what do you want for Christmas” type of Santa that we were used to. This was a thoughtful, wise Finnish Santa who asked deep and meaningful questions. This was the Santa who, when asked by a trans student what he thought of trans people, gave a simple yet profound answer that showed that this Santa values all people and doesn’t judge. This Santa did for this trans student what the Moomins did for the invisible girl provided the safe, supportive space required for people to be able to show their full and beautiful selves and be a valued part of society.
I am a lifelong cyclist. I was also recently told by my doctor that the type of mountain biking that I do is the worst form of physical activity for my autoimmune arthritis that impacts my spine. Before coming to Finland, I had given up cycling and was still
processing my grief over this. Part of the reason why I wanted to go to Finland was to experience the amazing cycling infrastructure. In Oulu, there are over 900 km of bicycle paths that are maintained year-round, approximately 20% of local transportation is by bicycle, and the city has earned the reputation of being the Winter Cycling Capital of the World. Coming from Canada, where cycling infrastructure is virtually non-existent and cold weather is often cited as a reason why we can’t create safer cycling conditions, it was wonderful for me to see an area with colder weather and darker winters where cycling was thriving and
supported.
When we arrived in Oulu, we were given access to bikes. I took one, even though it went against my doctor’s advice, because I wanted to experience this cycling paradise. And a paradise it was indeed. We biked everywhere in Oulu. It was safe. It was easy. It was joyous. The bikes were beautifully designed Finnish bikes that had no gears and a foot brake. It brought many of us back to our childhood and that first taste of freedom and independence that comes from riding a bike for the first time. It was also designed to put the rider in an upright position, so it didn’t hurt my back at all. In this sense, it gave me back something which I had recently lost. It was another amazing Finnish example of how good design and providing people with what they need can support inclusion and allow people to participate fully in society.
There were many challenges on this trip – air transport, jet lag, and dealing with the lack of darkness in the far north. I learned a lot from facing those challenges. I also learned a lot from the organized sessions and am forever grateful to our hosts. I am also grateful to these same people for infusing this journey with the Moomin spirit of adventure and providing us with the tools and support to learn about inclusive practice in our day-to-day experiences in Finland. We learned that many people in Finland collect Moomin mugs. Many of us purchased a mug or 5 so that we could start our own collections and bring that spirit back to our home countries. For me, it was a full circle of coming back to Canada with glass works of art containing my favourite Moomin characters that Minna had introduced me to decades earlier. I also returned with a deeper understanding of the Moomins, Finnish culture and meaningful ways to support inclusion, all of which are deeply interwoven, inseparable and infused into my educational practice moving forward.