Article Title

Two-Eyed Seeing in Research and its Absence in Policy: Little Saskatchewan First Nation Elders' Experiences of the 2011 Flood and Forced Displacement

Abstract

Two-eyed seeing is a guiding framework for research that values and uses Indigenous and Western ways of knowing. In this article, we describe the merits and challenges of using two-eyed seeing to guide a collaborative research project with a First Nation community in Manitoba, Canada devastated by a human-made flood. In 2011, provincial government officials flooded 17 First Nation communities including Little Saskatchewan First Nation (LSFN), displacing thousands of people. To date, approximately 350 LSFN’s on-reserve members remain displaced. Two-eyed seeing ensured that the study was community-driven and facilitated a more thorough analysis of the data. This case study illuminated the absence of two-eyed seeing in policy making and decision making. We argue for the need to incorporate two-eyed seeing in policy making and program development, and to value and foster Indigenous perspectives in decision making within communities, especially regarding activities that have a direct impact on environments within or surrounding Indigenous lands.

Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Institute of Aboriginal People's Health. We thank the participating Elders and Chief and Council of Little Saskatchewan First Nation for their support.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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