The Daily UbuntuThread 05 · War and Reconciliation · October 24, 2026 · 2 min read
Seeing with Both Eyes
A Mi'kmaw Elder from Nova Scotia invites us to look at the world with two eyes: one for Indigenous knowledges, the other for Western science. A simple idea that changes a lot.
The Story Granary
In his kitchen, in Eskasoni, Nova Scotia, Albert Marshall sits at the table. Through the window, he looks out at Bras d'Or Lake. He is 83 at the time, and a CBC reporter has come to listen.
The Mi'kmaw Elder talks about an idea he shaped with his wife, Murdena. In Mi'kmaw, it is etuaptmumk. In English: two-eyed seeing.
Try it. Close one eye and try to thread a needle. It's hard. With one eye, you can see, but you barely perceive depth. With both, the world gets its depth back.
Albert Marshall's idea is a bit like that. With one eye, you learn to see with the strengths of Indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing. With the other, you learn to see with the strengths of Western knowledges. Then you use both eyes together, for the benefit of all.
It is not about picking a side. Nor about melting one knowledge into the other. Each keeps its strength, and we look together.
Why this idea? About 25 years ago, the Marshall family noticed how few Indigenous students there were in local universities. Murdena Marshall, a Harvard graduate, consulted Cape Breton Elders. Their answer was clear: schools needed to make room for Mi'kmaw ways of knowing.
From 1999 to 2007, Albert Marshall helped create the Integrative Science program at Cape Breton University. It was the first of its kind in Canada.
Picture a simple example. A hydrologist measures the temperature and water quality of a lake. An Elder knows, through generations, when the fish come back and what families draw from them. Each sees part of the lake. Together, they see it better.
No one ever sees the world well with a single gaze.
The idea has travelled. Today it is found in education and research. In Nova Scotia, Albert Marshall helped prepare a Grade 12 environmental studies course built on two-eyed seeing. It includes field trips and water sampling.
Albert Marshall was born in 1938, in Eskasoni. He is a member of the Moose Clan and a fluent Mi'kmaw speaker. As a child, he attended the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School. In 2023, he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada.
When he speaks about the goal of it all, he says it is about learning to live together and to:
“use love and compassion as our guiding principle.”
Looking through another's eyes takes nothing away from us. It gives us depth, and a wider "we."
And you?
In your work or your family, what knowledge different from yours could help you see a situation with more depth?
Figures
Sources
- Albert Marshall (The Canadian Encyclopedia) thecanadianencyclopedia.ca
- Eskasoni elder bringing two-eyed seeing into the classroom (CBC News) www.cbc.ca
Every figure on this page links to a verifiable public source.
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