Conference Delivers Two-Eyed Seeing Training Focused on Climate Change Action

Photos by @MarkZelinski.com

Over two hundred and ninety attendees from numerous conservation, environmental, and Indigenous organizations packed The Gathering Place conference centre in Six Nations of the Grand River to gain training insights into Two-Eyed Seeing and Ethical Space in relation to the challenges presented by climate change. The event, organized by the Niagara Escarpment Biosphere Network, Mohawk College, and Plenty Canada featured a stellar line-up of Indigenous elders and scientists (not mutually exclusive), and technical specialists who worked in a number of fields to mitigate and reverse the impacts of climate change.

This gathering explored the ways in which Indigenous principles can and are being used to develop responses to the impacts of climate change including environmental shifts in seasons and cycles, extreme weather events, physical and mental health, food production, and more. The conference goal was to create Ethical Space for the engagement of ideas and inspiration as we begin to face the new ecological scenario created by Climate Change. Topics featured included Two-Eyed Seeing and Ethical Space, Natural Law and Cultural Prophecy, Wampum Law, Governance, and Reconciliation, Indigenous Food Security, Net-Zero Energy Building, Honouring Water, and Two-Eyed Seeing Bird Knowledge among many other approaches.

Present among the Indigenous leaders headlining sessions were Mi’kmaw Elder Albert Marshall (the Co-founder of the Two-Eyed Seeing philosophy), Shabot Obaadjiwan Elder Larry McDermott (Executive Director of Plenty Canada), Mohawk Elder Roronhiakewen Dr. Dan Longboat (Trent University Director of Indigenous Environmental Studies), Tuscarora Elder Rick Hill (Indigenous Innovations Specialist at Mohawk College), Onondaga Elder Oren Lyons (Faithkeeper and a principal figure in the development of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples), Shawanaga First Nation Elder Marilyn Capreol, and Charlene Winger-Jones (Hereditary Council member, Water Walker, and Co-chair of the Niagara Escarpment Biosphere Network). In addition, Mohawk Elder Tim Johnson (Senior Advisor to Plenty Canada, Niagara Parks, and the Royal Ontario Museum) and Seneca Elder Scientist Henry Lickers (Environmental Science Officer for the Mohawk Council and International Joint Commission) provided an orientation on the history of Indigenous engagement with climate change and science-based actions underway on both sides of the international border, respectively. 
​
A variety of fascinating sessions offered a broad range of information and perspectives on how to assess and deal with the crucial, and some would say existential, crisis of climate change impacting the health and well-being of future generations. A conversation between Dr. Sarah Burch, Executive Director, Waterloo Climate Institute and Lead Author of the United Nations’ Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and Katherine Flynn from the Mohawk College Centre for Climate Change Management, examined the scientific evidence and projected impacts of Climate Change. 

There were other exciting sessions that approached the topic through unique approaches that adhered to the conference’s main concept. For example, the leaders from four different bird-related research projects spoke about their progress, challenges, and experiences while incorporating Two-Eyed Seeing into their methodologies. The panel included Joseph Pitawanakwat (Founder & Director of Creators Garden, Leader of Anishinaabe Aki project), Andrés Jiménez (Anishinaabe Aki project, author of best-selling online course The Beginners Guide to Birdwatching: Finding Birds and Happiness), Mike Burrell (Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas Coordinator, member of the Birds Species Specialist Subcommittee for COSEWIC), and Lauren Jones (Wildlife and Stewardship Manager for Six Nations Lands and Resources.)

In a highly engaging and entertaining session that included youth participation, entitled United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Food Security, Jessica McLaughlin (Anishinaabe from Long Lake #58 First Nation) and Rosie Kerr (Post-doctoral fellow in the Sustainable Food System’s Lab, Lakehead University) reviewed how food sovereignty is the right of people to have access to healthy culturally appropriate foods, to grow and harvest foods produced through sustainable and ecologically sound methods, and for communities to define their own food systems. The purpose of their effort seeks to Identify, develop, and share civil society and Indigenous food system best practices along with policy analysis to address gaps in knowledge and data to advance a number of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The manner in which Jessica and Rosie applied Indigenous perspectives to each of the SDG’s, including the introduction of new associated graphics, offered clear and indelibleexamples of how Two-Eyed Seeing is being utilized.

A practical demonstration on what individuals and organizations can do to greatly reduce or even eliminate their carbon emissions was featured in the session dealing with Net-Zero Energy Building and Honouring the Water. Garrett Johnson (Researcher with IDEAWORKS at Mohawk College) and Tony Cupido (Professional Engineer and Ph.D. with 37 years of experience in engineering, facilities management and capital development) conducted a program opened by  Charlene Winger-Jones that detailed Plenty Canada’s rehabilitation of its Lanark, Ontario offices using innovative technologies that make efficient use of rain water while reducing and treating waste water through natural systems, and the application of solar energy applications that have made the organization’s CampUs energy negative.

Capping off the event was a moving session involving a significant and substantial group of youth who served as respondents to the conference program. Led by Mohawk Doctoral Candidate Abraham Francis, whose work specializes in the intersections between Indigenous and scientific knowledge, each of the youth presented their observations and experiences on what they saw as a way forward. The substance, tone, and tenor of their remarks had a tremendous impact upon those attending the conference.

Each day began with cultural presentations designed to focus minds and hearts on the work. Elder Kevin Deer, from Kahnawake Mohawk Territory and the Director of Indigenous Knowledge Quality Learning and Teaching Excellence at First Nations Technical Institute, opened Day One delivering an explanation of the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address, followed by Craig Abotossaway giving a short reflection on the Seven Sacred Gifts. On Day Two Elder Josh Eshkawkogan, a pipe carrier, sweat lodge conductor, and orator from the Wikwemikoong Unceded Indian Reserve, conducted a Pipe Ceremony.

During the evening of the first day of the conference a special concert event entitled TREATY: A Reconciliation Revelry, featured an ensemble of award-winning musicians including Joshua Arden Miller and the Pappy Johns Band, along with The Ollivanders and Rob Lamothe. They took audience members on a journey of varied experiences that led Canadians through stories of encounter and conflict to resolution, landing on uplifting notes of recognition, understanding, and respect. The program’s stories and messages, conveyed through video, narrative, and of course music, provided attendees with historical context for understanding Indigenous experiences and Indigenous realities today. Brief film segments featuring Indigenous and Canadian leaders in civil society, education, culture, and the arts, who speak to the themes identified by a list of definitions of select words, were followed by curated musical performances thereby building a story that paved the way forward for Truth and Reconciliation.

Event sponsors were Environment and Climate Change Canada, Mohawk College, and the Department of Canadian Heritage.

The conference was documented by photographer Mark Zelinski and Audio-Visual services provided by Thru The Red Door.​

—  Staff report