U C Zig, U C Zag?

Although I am Indigenous, I never grew up within Indigenous community. I did not have the chance to learn about Indigenous Ways of Knowing. Instead, the Canadian (i.e., Western) education system has shaped my learning over the past 30-plus years. For instance, during my PhD research, I used thinkers from twentieth-century continental philosophy. Many of these thinkers were old, white, European men now deceased. However, I included Indigenous-relevant events, such as Idle No More, in my teaching whenever I could. Nonetheless, I never had opportunity to engage with Indigenous Studies or Indigenous Knowledge.

Listen to Your Elders

In Spring 2023, I started my work developing Indigenous Academic and Student Resources for the University of Calgary’s Student Success Centre. I began by reflecting on two ideas I learned since completing my PhD. These ideas shaped how I perceived Indigenous Studies and have influenced my recent teaching. These ideas are Two-Eyed Seeing, as discussed by Mi’kmaq Elders Albert Marshall and Murdena Marshall from the Eskasoni First Nation (Bartlett et al., 2012), and Jagged Worldviews Colliding, as elaborated by Blackfoot researcher Leroy Little Bear from the Kainai First Nation (2000).

Two-Eyed Seeing

I first encountered the idea of Two-Eyed Seeing in Fall 2022. A staff member from the University of Calgary’s Office of Indigenous Engagement mentioned it at the beginning of a Zoom lecture presentation. As someone who is Indigenous but not culturally connected, I wanted to know more. What does it mean to see and to understand the world from perspectives informed by both Indigenous Knowledge and Western knowledge? How can I use Two-Eyed Seeing to think about Indigenous Studies? As a developing Indigenous Studies scholar, do I need to abandon—or at least set aside—what I have learned from Western education? Finally, why do we think of Indigenous Knowledge and Western knowledge as opposites? 

Jagged Worldviews Colliding

Around the same time as hearing about Two-Eyed Seeing, I also learned about Jagged Worldviews Colliding through my writing tutoring work at the Writing Symbols Lodge. Several Indigenous students I worked with were studying this idea in their Indigenous Studies classes. Jagged Worldviews Colliding names the process by which Indigenous Peoples negotiate split perspectives because of the effects European settler colonialism had on the lands, languages, knowledges, and communities of Turtle Island (or North America). I realized that I could consider my lack of Indigenous cultural connection as an instance of Jagged Worldviews Colliding. My engagement with Indigenous Studies exclusively through the Western education system is another such instance. What has been difficult for me to navigate is not knowing what I do not know. About Indigenous Studies? Undoubtedly. About being Indigenous within the university system? Quite possibly. Being Indigenous, but for whom? Potentially.

Conclusion

To me, both Two-Eyed Seeing and Jagged Worldviews Colliding sounded like what ii' taa'poh'to'p, the University of Calgary’s Indigenization Strategy, describes as “walking parallel paths together, in a good way.” But what, exactly, do we see at the end of the journey of walking such paths? Parallel lines always converge on a horizon. As an Indigenous staff member and educator at the University of Calgary, I often wonder, maybe what we see from both perspectives, Indigenous and Western, need not be so jagged after all?