Chris Benjamin: This book is poetic, beautiful and powerful. Can you tell me a bit about how it came to be?
Elder Albert Marshall: Apparently this is the reason why it was written: How much Aboriginal students have been disconnected from nature. How much we are connected with nature. How much we are dependent on nature. Without that connection, you can’t feel something for it.
Hopefully this book will make that connection at a younger age. We have a lot of land-based training in the curriculum; this will be an introduction. Showing not just appreciation, respect, but protection of nature. Looking at the current state of our environment, in which cleansing capacity has been exhausted. Nature needs humans now for some form of intervention, using science to mitigate the damage.
At that tender age, how young Aboriginal people learn, you’re much more interested in visuals rather than text. The book has limited text. That allows for visual storytelling. Children are great at extracting story from visuals. And Aboriginal people tend to be visual learners.
I hope this will trigger something in them.
Benjamin: Can you talk a bit about Two-Eyed Seeing and this book for children?
Elder Marshall: The reason the phrase Two-Eyed Seeing was coined is that every creature has two eyes. I see everything from an Aboriginal lens. My culture and customs. With that perception, I know I was never meant to be alone. Two-Eyed Seeing enriches perspective. Now I have another perspective. This is a much more whole-istic way—whole as in w-h-o-l-e.
One eye limits what we see. Geographically, wherever we may be, we may become intimately connected with the environment. But it’s a global issue. The more connected we become, the better chance we have.
Benjamin: Ecology Action Centre has been working with Faith and the Common Good, connecting people from different faiths who want to act to protect the environment. People often seem motived by their sense of spiritual love, or even obligation. It seems the ways Indigenous people experience spirituality can be quite different from settlers. Do you have any thoughts on how spirituality relates to Two-Eyed Seeing?
Elder Marshall: As a Mi’kmaq person, before I feel completely well, my physical, cognitive, emotional, and spiritual realms all must be well. The spiritual connection has to be there.
If you are not fulfilling your inherent responsibilities, Great Creator gave us a cognitive mind. If we compromise ecological integrity, we can use the cognitive mind to repair it. We solely depend on Her. Our efforts should benefit all. If she’s not healthy, how can we be?
Netukulimk, in Mi’kmaw. Sustainability. We have the privilege to use gifts of Creator. We don’t have the right to compromise the ecological integrity of the area. We cannot compromise the Earth’s cleansing capacity.
Benjamin: Walking Together emphasizes the importance of stories. I’ve always liked Leslie Marmon Silko’s statement that stories are “all we have to fight off illness and death.” And I feel that’s true. But in this book you’re showing stories aren’t only a defence mechanism, that through them we “receive gifts of Mother Earth.” Can you talk about those gifts? 
Elder Marshall: Bedtime stories Aboriginal children used to hear, in all of those stories, there was never a human form in it. They were always based on other lifeforms. A squirrel or a rabbit or some other creature.
How much we are interconnected. Everything and anything we are involved with comes from the story.
If the story is told enough times, it becomes reality. It should guide us to our responsibilities.
I have to bear in mind, this generation and the next seven must benefit from my efforts. It is time to put our differences aside and start another narrative. Of hope. In which no one is allowed to start a project that damages ecological integrity.
Benjamin: I love the line in the book, “Sing the Lands and Waters awake after a deep rest.” That spirit of renewal seems really important right now as people become worried about the future of humanity on earth. Does Two-Eyed Seeing also offer us a means of having hope in protecting the nonhuman world? (And therefore humans too?)
Elder Marshall: It should become a fundamental principle of how we go through life while here. Actions must be in harmony with nature. Any project not ecologically sustainable, we must come up with an alternative.
Benjamin: A lot of planning right now, by governments, has to do with technological change. And I do think that matters, but what do you think they can learn about “the languages of the Land.”
Elder Marshall: I don’t believe the government is very much interested in preserving the environment for the future. The onus is on the people to tell them from here on in, we cannot continue with business as usual.
Benjamin: I so appreciate the reverence in the book. The words are poetic but it’s a very straightforward, teaching kind of poetic. And the artwork is stunning. Have you given much thought to the role of creativity and art in storytelling, in helping humans better care for the Earth?
Elder Marshall: The more you know about something … somehow it will connect us to this notion of compassion, responsibility, respect, the seeds of knowledge will be planted with as many people as possible, and there is hope.
“Nature has rights, humans have responsibilities.” Always be mindful and cognizant, every action you take must be sustainable.
Benjamin: Wela’lin.
The price associated with buying and installing enough heat pumps for the space was a larger deterrent, but the church trustees were also committed to the cause. One had installed solar panels on his own house and felt compelled to reduce impact on the environment. But Duke credits funding from 
The next step is to replace all the lighting with LEDs, which will further improve efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For Duke, the greatest reward is knowing their impact on the climate has been reduced. That's important for such a pillar of the community.
