Wolastoqey students learn 'two-eyed seeing' approach to marine conservation

Summer Saulis spent a chilly recent morning observing seagull behaviour on a quiet Saint John boardwalk surrounded by a salt marsh.

Armed with binoculars and notepads, she and 16 others recorded the gulls' behaviour, noting they were calm, fed and undisturbed.

The observations made at the Irving Nature Park were part of a field observation exercise on the last day of a two-week course that fuses marine ecology studies with Indigenous elder experience. "I definitely want to know more about the world around me through my ancestors' perspective and modern perspective," Saulis said. 

What Saulis described is called the "two-eyed seeing" approach, which aims to tackle environmental issues using the benefits of both perspectives.

New to her role as an environmental technician in Bilijk First Nation, formerly known as Kingsclear near Fredericton, Saulis wants to see her ancestors reflected in the field of environmental conservation. 

It's one of several themes explored in the course taught at Bilijk as a part of the Building Environmental Aboriginal Human Resources program, to inspire Indigenous people to pursue work in environment-based fields. 

The program gave the students the chance to listen to elders talk about connection to the land while teaching them methods of environmental data collection.

Saulis, who is also a Wolastoqey language holder, said she appreciated the course trying to bring Indigenous perspectives to the forefront, although she found a language element missing. "I was seeing opportunities where there could have been chances to say, 'Hey, this is where we used to pick medicines or this is how you say that in our language,'" she said. Saulis took it upon herself to bridge that gap, bringing her knowledge of the language to every class and adding it to the course as it progressed. "For me, the language is a big piece for us to make that connection." 

The environmental program is offered by the non-profit Environmental Careers Organization Canada and is the first to be delivered in New Brunswick focused specifically on marine conservation. Leif Helmer, the program's facilitator, said it is important that courses like this one are available within Indigenous communities. 

"There's a lot of environmental and marine and conservation-related needs in community," he said. "And there's a desire to solve those problems."

Helmer's delivery of the subject matter was intended to be as holistic in scope as possible.

"We looked at the major stressors on the ocean environment," Helmer said. "Then we looked at some pressures or drivers that are creating problems. "Then we started moving into how we address those issues … bringing community solutions" to the problems. The "two-eyed seeing" approach brings inclusion to the table, he said. "People who are affected most have a knowledge system that's not necessarily been respected or mainstream for a long time," he said. 

Another participant, Al Francis, was an environmental technician for seven years before being laid off during the Covid-19 pandemic. Francis, who has been doing coastal surveys for nearly a decade, was happy to learn there are people who think and feel similar to him about marine conservation. He says it's important to understand the natural environment to preserve it.

"We have to know what's there. You know, we have the trees, we have the flora and the fauna." he said. "We have to know what we're protecting, whether that be frogs, lizards, salamanders, fish, birds, everything." "If we don't know what's there, then what are we protecting?"