The Mount’s Food Action Research Centre (FoodARC), in partnership with Atlantic Indigenous Mentorship Network, will host Elder Albert Marshall and Dr. Cheryl Bartlett for the latest edition of the Mount Saint Vincent University President’s Visiting Lecture Series on Teaching and Learning.

A workshop and public lecture will be held at the Mount on January 9, 2019, and will examine how we as administrators, students, and faculty members appreciate and embed the contributions of Indigenous ways of knowing within our programs and institutions. They will focus on the topic of Two-Eyed Seeing, which refers to learning 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 learning to use both these eyes together for the benefit of all.

Albert D. Marshall, Elder, Honorary Doctorates, Honorary Diploma

Mi’kmaw Elder Dr. Albert Marshall is from the Moose Clan of the Mi’kmaw Nation. He lives in the community of Eskasoni in Unama’ki – Cape Breton, NS, though much of his youth was spent at the Shubenacadie residential school. His wife and best friend was the late Murdena Marshall; together they had six children and welcomed many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Albert is a highly-respected, internationally-known Elder and a fluent speaker of Mi’kmaw. He has long worked to share understandings about the Mi’kmaw language, culture, stories, spirituality, ways of knowing, and knowledge. He is also a passionate advocate of our human responsibilities to care for all creatures and our Earth Mother and is the person who many years ago brought forward the guiding principle of Etuaptmumk / Two-Eyed Seeing which encourages that we all learn to see with the “best” or the “strengths” in different knowledges and cultural paradigms. Albert has been invited to speak about Etuaptumumk / Two-Eyed Seeing on hundreds of occasions across Canada and internationally. He is the “designated voice” in regards to environmental matters for the Mi’kmaw Elders of Unama’ki – Cape Breton.

Albert was conferred an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by Cape Breton University in 2009, an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities by Acadia University in 2018, and an Honorary Diploma by the Nova Scotia Community College in 2018.

Dr. Cheryl Bartlett is of newcomer lineage (European) and grew up in Blackfoot Traditional Territory in the short-grass prairies of southern Alberta.

She completed her BSc in Zoology at the University of Alberta, her MSc and PhD in Parasitology at the University of Guelph, and a post-doctoral fellowship at the Laboratoire des Vers in the Muséum National d’Historie Naturelle in Paris. Her research focused on the nematode parasites of wild animals and she published numerous articles in that field; she also served for several years as Assistant Editor for the international Journal of Wildlife Diseases.

In 1989 she was hired at Cape Breton University, teaching first biology and then Toqwa’tu’kl Kjijitaqnn / Integrative Science – the latter an innovative undergraduate science degree program that brought together Indigenous and Western scientific knowledges and ways of knowing. Cheryl worked closely with Mi’kmaw Elders (especially Murdena and Albert Marshall), educators, community organizations, and mainstream allies to propose and create that unique program; their efforts were guided by co-learning and the principle of Etuaptmumk / Two-Eyed Seeing. She also expanded the Integrative Science educational initiative into science and health research, applications, and youth outreach and, especially in conjunction with Elders Albert and Murdena Marshall, promoted Integrative Science and Two-Eyed Seeing across Canada.

For these achievements, Cheryl was named a Member of the Order of Canada in 2011. She retired from Cape Breton University in 2012.

• Begin a co-learning journey of your own to contribute to Reconciliation in Action

• Contribute to an understanding of how we as administrators, students, and faculty members can appreciate and embed the contributions of indigenous ways of knowing within own programs and institutions.

• Build capacity to deconstruct and address social inequities that are both perpetuated by and engrained in our education systems

• Explore opportunities for cross-cultural collaboration and intersectoral leadership to support our teaching and learning.

Date: January 9, 2019

Time: 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Date: January 9, 2019

Time: 7 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Location: Rosaria Student Centre, Multi-Purpose Room

For more information on both the workshop and public lecture, contact foodsecurity@msvu.ca or 902-457-5408