OPINION: What I've learned from elder Albert Marshall … so far

Janet Bickerton is shown with Albert Marshall. Bickerton admires Marshall's approach to the environment. After spending some time with Elder Dr. Albert Marshall (Albert) I felt it important to share some of our conversation. Albert is part of a local group formed six years ago called the Climate Change Task Force: a group of people from different walks of life and backgrounds coming together around their concern for our environment and the dire threat of climate change. This is how I got to know Elder Albert. I want to share some of what I have learned through my conversations with Albert and how he has got me thinking. I believe we need Albert’s leadership. We need to see from two eyes if we are to have a liveable world for our children and generations to come. Elder Albert and his wife Murdena articulated the Two-Eyed Seeing Approach, and now it is becoming known and shared worldwide. It is about human collaboration, recognizing that nature has rights and we have responsibilities. She is us. When we destroy nature, we destroy ourselves. A HARD TRUTH Much of this (two-eyed seeing) is new to me. I am a non-Indigenous person from a Scottish-English heritage who grew up in small-town Cape Breton in the 60s and 70s. My ancestors were settlers who came here on boats, many after being persecuted and driven out of their home countries and most were given parcels of land to begin their lives here in the New World – given land that was stolen from the Mi’kmaq. It is a hard truth to swallow. Read More Mi’kmaw Elder Albert Marshall on environmentalism as a way of life Dr. Albert D. Marshall named to Order of Canada for “two-eyed seeing” work I am learning so much and initially I felt some resistance to hearing terms that referred to me as a colonizer or a settler. It was rubbing me the wrong way. But I knew in my heart, and taking a cue from truth and reconciliation, that it was time to listen and truly hear. To hear about what happened to my neighbours, to the Mi’kmaq, and basically to all other Indigenous peoples throughout the world. Albert has a kind of simple, direct love that he brings along with him. He is open-minded, accepting, non-judgmental, a listener, astute, and, I would say, a visionary. I would put him with the likes of Stephen Lewis (recently passed) and David Suzuki, among others. Something these visionaries have in common with Albert is that as accepting as Albert is, he is uncompromising when it comes to what he knows is the wrong…