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Universities share responsibility for creating obstacles to postsecondary education for Indigenous peoples. This article introduces a community participation model of research and teaching intended to restore health and make the university a welcoming place. Cape Breton University's Institute for Integrative Science and Health draws on the strengths of Indigenous and Western knowledges, basing its integrative Indigenist practice on the guiding principle of "Two-Eyed Seeing" and linguistic components of health such as the Mi'kmaq "healing tense." Critical analysis and dramatic reenactment describe efforts to revitalize language and restore relationships with each other and with the land.
Introduction
One territory of the Mi'kmaq peoples of Canada is Unama'ki, Mi'kmaki, a place European settlers named Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. There young Mi'kmaq are asking: "What's going to happen to my culture if I go all the way with this education system?" Here is a gathering of conversations several of us have had about this question. The speakers (we) belong to a group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, Elders, university researchers, teachers, artists, and other community members.1 We form Cape Breton University's Institute for Integrative Science/Toqwa'tu'kl Kjijitaqnn and Health (IISH). Our institute is the physical home of "Two-Eyed Seeing," an Indigenist pedagogy, research, practice, and way of living that incorporates Western and Indigenous knowledges (see IISH Web site).2 Two-Eyed Seeing grew from the teachings of the late spiritual leader, healer, and chief Charles Labrador of Acadia First Nation, Nova Scotia, especially these words: "Go into a forest, you see the birch, maple, pine. Look underground and all those trees are holding hands. We as people must do the same."3 The conversations you will read are part of our work to make the university a place where Mi'kmaq and Western ways are respected equally.
Murdena Marshall is a Mi'kmaq Elder and spiritual leader of Eskasoni Nation. For many years Murdena has worked to increase the presence of Mi'kmaq students in university, especially in science-related programs, and to have Indigenous knowledge recognized in those curricula. Murdena retired as Associate Professor of Mi'kmaq studies in the late 1990s. Albert Marshall is also a Mi'kmaq Elder of Eskasoni First Nation. Albert is a respected guest at regional, national, and international conferences and workshops. He speaks passionately and often about "the need...