Gwe, Nindalewisi, Rebecca. Hi, my name is Rebecca. Shall we? The language you speak fundamentally shapes your worldview and everything that goes along with it.
And this concept is specifically amplified when it comes to indigenous languages. Indigenous language weaves its way through every aspect of who we are as people, from how we interact with the physical world, how we build our communities, and how we carry our culture forward. And with that comes a unique perspective. And it's that perspective that I'm going to try to create for you so that when I introduce the concept of eduwaptamank, of two-eyed seeing, you'll understand why it's so important. So to begin, a study published in Psychological Sciences called Two languages, two minds broke down grammatical tools that situate actions in time.
They showed photographs to English and German speakers and asked them to describe what was going on in them. So, for example, they showed a woman walking in a parking lot. English speakers said, This is a woman walking. Whereas German speakers said, This is a woman walking to her car.
They showed another photograph, a man riding his bicycle. Once again, English speakers honed in on the action and said, this is a man riding his bicycle, whereas German speakers needed to add a destination to complete their context, even though that destination wasn't featured in the photograph. This is a man riding his bicycle to the library or to the supermarket. And what's interesting is that English marks events as ongoing.
We're very action-oriented in our language. So if I'm writing a poem when my spouse calls and he asks me what I'm doing, I'll say I'm writing, regardless of the fact that I had stopped to answer the phone. German simply doesn't have this feature. And so it's interesting to see the two worldviews these languages carry, even though they have a common root. So what happens when you have a group of people with a language that has no common root but must operate within a completely foreign framework?
Specifically, how do indigenous people find success in a colonized world? Now the saying... And things get lost in translation rings truer than you might imagine when it comes to indigenous languages. This is Mi'kmaq territory, and many of you might have heard the word jelasi to mean welcome.
That's what it's used for, but the literal translation of the concept equates to, I'll do my best. That's a much more nuanced and meaningful interaction in this moment a person-to-person contract is being agreed upon. Think about that.
In this moment, I will try for you. So, language isn't just something we use to get our points across. As I said, it's woven into who we are as people and our notions of a broader identity. So Robert Thomas, no relation, wrote about that broader identity and he called it peoplehood when referring to indigenous peoples.
Now the term peoplehood is a little bit odd, so I'm going to break it down for you. Peoplehood differs from identity in that it not only encompasses the individual identity, but how that person ties it to a larger collection of peoples, and how that in turn connects them to other people within that collective. So for example, I don't speak Megamaw, and I grew up off reserve, but I still identify as a Megamaw person. I'm still within the concept of a Megamaw peoplehood, and that in turn connects me to somebody who grew up on reserve, and who speaks the language. And it's getting a bit complex, so please bear with me.
Peoplehood is made up of four things. Territory, sacred history, ceremonial cycle, and language. Each thread informs the other.
You can't address a single aspect of it without looking at the whole. Think of a spider web. If you clip a single thread that anchors it, the whole thing starts to collapse.
So the Mi'kmaq language, for example, with its unique characteristics, gives meaning to a sacred history which... dictates the use of the land, which is crucial to the appropriate execution of a ceremonial cycle, which in turn is performed in many of the languages that those ceremonies encompass. So firstly, that is a direct quote from my MA, so I'm going to take this moment and feel vindicated in my decision to pursue another arts degree. And secondly, Indigenous peoples are complicated and complex.
Imagine centuries ago when we were writing the treaties and the language we were communicating in encompassed how we would use the land, how would we carry our culture forward, how would we develop relationships with the settlers and colonizers. Now, how much of that was lost in translation when they were recorded in English and French? So I digress, but remember those four strands.
Language, ceremonial cycle, territory, and sacred history. The best part about peoplehood is that it is tremendously flexible. We can swap out and alter some of those strands without compromising our status as Indigenous people. So once again, I'm going to use my lived experience as an example.
You already know I don't speak Mi'kmaq, and that's because through residential school, my... primary language thread has been replaced with English and French. So if I go to a ceremony that's conducted entirely in the Mi'kmaq language, the significance of that ceremony might not fully resonate with me because I won't understand the full scope of what's being said, but that does not diminish who I am as a Mi'kmaq person. Furthermore, there are many Mi'kmaq people who are practicing Catholics. So even though they smudge and they dance and they drum and they sweat, They also go to church and pray in the Mi'kmaq language, and that does not take away from them.
They have woven another set of ceremonies into their ceremonial thread. Because being an indigenous person is a lived experience. There's no spectrum whereby somebody is more or less native than somebody else.
Any arguments over authenticity are us internalizing a history of colonialism that has created rubrics and tools to measure our ethnicity. And blood quantum has nothing to do with it. The fact that my mother is non-native does not take away from the fact that I am a Mi'kmaq person. So with that said, I'm going to check in with you guys.
Language shapes your worldview and is one of four aspects that create an indigenous peoplehood, an indigenous understanding of knowing of how the world works. So when you look at the picture that I'm trying to paint for you, you're going to understand what you're looking at. So here's the picture. Indigenous peoples are the fastest growing demographic in Canada.
Our median age is 28 years old compared to that of 43 to the non-native world. And what that means is you're going to see more of us in your classrooms, in your workspaces, and in your public spaces. The world is going to have to learn to interact with us in ways that are more meaningful and significant than what they have done in the past. I don't need to elaborate for you all to know we don't have the best history.
So what? That's the question I always get asked. How does this apply to the real world? I work in student services, in education. I act as a go-between for the native and non-native world.
I advocate for students who have a hard time speaking up about themselves. I coach faculty on how to have appropriate cultural supports. And yet, in spite of what I try to do, sometimes the effects an Indigenous student feels are too great, and they leave to go home.
And it's not that they're not smart, it's not that they aren't capable of doing the work, it's just that this world doesn't get them. Our protocols, our concepts of time, our ethics, etc., are just different. And it doesn't mean we can't communicate with your world, we've been doing it for the better part of five centuries, it's that we ask that you now try to communicate with our world.
And it is at this moment that I introduce the concept of eduwaptamak, of two-eyed seeing. It was introduced by elder Albert Marshall. Two-eyed seeing takes the strengths of both a colonized world and both an indigenous world and asks that the user see through both lenses simultaneously to find success.
It is the Mi'kmaq understanding of the gift of multiple perspectives, to see multiple contexts simultaneously. For example, you see Nova Scotia, Nouvelle-Écosse. Canada.
We see Mi'kma'ki, traditional territory, Turtle Island. It's not either or, it's both at the same time. Two-Eyed Seeing was originally introduced to build greater capacity for STEM programming for Indigenous students and post-secondary institutions, and is now being adopted nationally by organizations and institutions who are interested in transcultural collaboration.
Two-eyed seeing implies responsibilities for reciprocity, mutual accountability, and co-learning. It's what we tried to build our treaties on. We want you to know about us, and we want success in this world, but we are no longer willing to give up our world to do it. And you might be asking yourself, why would I go through so much trouble to indigenize the institution for such a small number of students?
And the answer, my friends, is beautiful. It has been shown, it has been proven, that when institutions implement Indigenous pedagogy and learning styles, students across the board benefit, Native and non-Native. Because we recognize the multiple contexts and paradigms that learners learn through, our ways of teaching have traditionally been more universal and more inclusive.
So, with all of my academic speak and concept introduction, I bring it back to the elders who always tend to say it best with regards to education and relationship building. According to Albert Marshall, the foundational basis of any relationship is an exchange of stories. So as a storyteller and as a poet, I will leave you all with what I do best, a poem entitled Eru Optima.
I lost my talk, said Rita Jo. For me, I was never given the option to know, to feel the flow of the words as they rolled off my tongue, giving me the lyrics of how our world was sung. My perspective was spun using the threads of both your world and theirs, left to cobble together a spirit from rags and tears, painfully aware that I was different. Through hard work and determination, I found my indigenous articulation, a compilation of two ways makes up the sum of me.
You have two eyes, yet you only have one view. Your way is best, you would argue. Centuries of being in position to subdue those who would aspire. They say the sun never set on the British Empire.
And because we recognize the hubris that defines your story, we have both a sunrise and a sunset in our territory. With my heart and eyes, I have a completely different view. The consequence of my skin comes in an entirely different hue. Don't you see? Although you represent us, we...
We think very differently than you because we see the world not through one set of eyes, but through two. Thousands of years long, we were independent, proud, and strong. We belong to this earth.
The way power belongs to money and privilege to birth, we put our communities first. But then came the fleets, filled with those you would ironically define today as come from away to invade every inch of our world, to break our spirits and pull the threads that would unfurl us to catch the way you speak. But this is not a poem for the retelling of a one-sided history.
Each of our worlds has their strengths. Yours is in power. It gets to eat its cake and define race. It has the ability to unapologetically take up space if societal progress is linear. This society is top-tier, terra nullius, as though we were never here.
It must be nice to be so confident. This society is ubiquitous, built on reified rubrics of tradition and rhetoric. Your notions of diversity are ad hoc in nature, an afterthought feature to an immovable structure. But this is not a conviction nor an acquittal. Just the voice coming from an eye trained to be critical.
And if you push the two sides of our Venn diagram together, you'll get our circle. We were never meant to be static like the rivers around us. We shift.
and change and remain dynamic. We bring something to the table that is able to change your worldview and show you what we are capable of, that a lot can come from a holistic concept of the earth. You are not a plague, nor are we a curse or a problem in need of a solution, and we've got to rid ourselves of the spiritual dissolution, the dilution of our treaties written to share this land.
And I ask that you understand that we are the experts on what we need. Don't feed us your good intentions. Carefully laid apologies will not get you an historical exemption.
We plan our actions for the next seven generations and we invite you to do the same. Open your other set of eyes, take a pause, and start breathing. Welcome to the world of 2-IT. Thank you.
Walali'e.