Two-Eyed Seeing

The phrase two-eyed seeing — Mi’kmaq etuaptmumk — was articulated by Mi’kmaq Elder Albert Marshall of the Eskasoni First Nation in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, in the early 2000s. The articulation came out of a sustained collaboration between Albert Marshall, his wife and co-elder Murdena Marshall, and the marine biologist Cheryl Bartlett at Cape Breton University, in the Integrative Science / Toqwa’tu’kl Kjijitaqnn program — an undergraduate science program designed to integrate Mi’kmaq knowledge with Western marine biology.

The principle

Marshall’s articulation is direct:

To learn to see from one eye with the strengths of indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing, and from the other eye with the strengths of Western knowledges and ways of knowing, and to learn to use both these eyes together, for the benefit of all.

The image is precise. One eye — indigenous knowledge: place-based, relational, carried in oral and ceremonial tradition, multi-generational, attentive to the more-than-human as composed of persons, ethically structured by reciprocity. The other eye — Western science: experimental, cumulative, written, internationally peer-reviewed, structured by replication and falsification. Both eyes together — neither subordinated to the other, neither flattened into the other, each contributing what it does best, integrated through the practitioner who has trained both ways of seeing.

Marshall is explicit that two-eyed seeing is not a synthesis or a hybrid. The two eyes remain two; what changes is the practitioner’s capacity to use them together.

What it has produced

The Integrative Science program at CBU produced a generation of Mi’kmaq students with substantial training in both Mi’kmaq traditional knowledge and Western marine biology. The graduates have gone on to substantial work in fisheries, coastal restoration, and indigenous-Western environmental partnerships across Atlantic Canada and beyond.

The principle has spread widely:

• Marine and fisheries science. The work of Andrea Reid (Nisga’a, University of British Columbia) on indigenous-led salmon research; the application of two-eyed seeing in collaborative Pacific salmon work.
• Health research. The Centre for Aboriginal Health Research’s adoption of two-eyed seeing as a methodology; Margaret Robinson’s work in Nova Scotia.
• Conservation biology. Indigenous-led caribou research in Yukon and the Northwest Territories; Inuit-Western collaboration on Arctic ecology.
• Education. Curricula at the elementary, secondary, and university level explicitly structured around two-eyed seeing.
• Wildlife management. The increasing integration of Indigenous and Local Knowledge (ILK) into IPBES (the international biodiversity assessment body) and other major frameworks.

What distinguishes it

A few features that have made two-eyed seeing particularly portable:

• It refuses to subordinate. Many integrative frames have, in practice, treated indigenous knowledge as raw material to be validated by Western science. Two-eyed seeing insists on equal standing — both eyes, both ways of knowing.
• It refuses to homogenize. Two-eyed seeing does not produce a hybrid third epistemology; it produces a practitioner trained in two distinct ways of knowing. The two remain distinct.
• It is practical. The frame emerged from a real working program in marine biology, not from theoretical discourse. Its credibility comes from its results.
• It is generous. Marshall has been clear that two-eyed seeing is offered to the wider world, not only for indigenous-Western collaboration narrowly. The principle generalizes: any two distinct epistemic traditions can be held in two-eyed seeing, with respect to each.

Honest about extension

A note for clarity. Two-eyed seeing was articulated by Mi’kmaq elders and emerged from a specific collaborative program. Wider adoption has been generally welcomed by Marshall, but the principle has on occasion been extracted from its origin in ways that minimize the indigenous side of the collaboration. [[0mn1one|The platform]]‘s posture: name the source, learn from the principle, and let the indigenous epistemology stand at its own weight.

What this gives the platform

Three contributions:

1. A working methodology for indigenous-Western integration. [[0mn1one|The platform]]‘s [[mission-district-sf|mission]] of abundance for every form of life has substantial dependence on indigenous land knowledge. Two-eyed seeing names how that knowledge can be integrated with Western ecology without subordinating either.
2. A model for the wider epistemic conversation. [[0mn1one|The platform]] increasingly engages scientific, contemplative, and indigenous traditions; two-eyed seeing names a posture from which these can be held together.
3. A continuing teaching from a continuing tradition. The Mi’kmaq are not historical; they are present, governing themselves, doing science, articulating philosophy. [[0mn1one|The platform]] takes the principle seriously as living teaching.

See also

Auto-generated from this entry’s typed relations: frontmatter, grouped by relation type so the editorial signal isn’t flattened.

• Subset of: [[spirituality]]
• Parallels: [[cognitive-symbiosis]]

Sources

1. Cheryl Bartlett, Murdena Marshall, & Albert Marshall. “Two-Eyed Seeing and Other Lessons Learned within a Co-learning Journey of Bringing Together Indigenous and Mainstream Knowledges and Ways of Knowing.” Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences 2 (2012). Source class: scholarly article / foundational articulation.
2. Marilyn Iwama, Murdena Marshall, Albert Marshall, & Cheryl Bartlett. “Two-Eyed Seeing and the Language of Healing in Community-Based Research.” Canadian Journal of Native Education 32 (2009). Source class: scholarly article.
3. The Integrative Science / Toqwa’tu’kl Kjijitaqnn program documentation. Cape Breton University. http://www.integrativescience.ca. Source class: institutional / educational.
4. Andrea J. Reid et al. “Two-Eyed Seeing: An Indigenous framework to transform fisheries research and management.” Fish and Fisheries 22 (2021). Source class: scholarly article / contemporary application.
5. IPBES. “Indigenous and Local Knowledge in IPBES.” Various reports, 2017–. Source class: institutional / methodological framework.

Lenses still to grow

• Albert and Murdena Marshall as figures in their own right.
• The Integrative Science program at CBU as a continuing institution.
• Specific applications — fisheries, health, conservation biology — each deserves more detailed treatment.
• The IPBES integration of ILK as a piece of contemporary global science policy.
• Mi’kmaq tradition more broadly — the wiki currently has very little on it.
• Comparable frames — the braided knowledge ([[robin-wall-kimmerer|Kimmerer]]), parallel paths (Williams), [[kincentric-ecology|kincentric ecology]] (Salmón) frames that share family resemblance with two-eyed seeing.