As IndigeSTEAM, it is our mission to

• Provide Indigenous-led, culturally relevant STEM/STEAM educational programming for Indigenous youth, adults, and their communities.
• Provide this same programming on Indigenous Ways of Knowing through the language and concepts of STEM/STEAM for non-Indigenous people as a reconciliation action. 

We deliver workshops, summer camps, role model networking, and public engagement that respect Indigenous culture, Ways of Knowing, and the STEM inherent in Indigenous knowledge since time immemorial.

Mi’kmaq Elder Albert Marshall introduced this term – Etuaptmumk – and it means seeing with one eye the strengths of Indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing, while balancing it in the other eye the strengths of western knowledge. This approach integrates Indigenous worldviews in our classrooms.

It enables First Nations students to succeed in dominant culture without compromising their own. We apply Two-Eyed Seeing to build connections across communities, working with immigrants and newcomers so that all who call this land home learn about Indigenous peoples from Indigenous voices, not solely through settler perspectives.

Mi’kmaw artist Rebecca Thomas has a fifteen-minute TEDx talk on this topic we encourage you to watch and learn.

Additionally, on our Education page, we have a more in-depth incredibly educational video interview with Mi’kmaq Elder Albert Marshall about Etuaptmumk: Two-Eyed Seeing in All Directions Enabling Us To Walk Together.

At IndigeSTEAM, many of our staff and board members – past and present – represent every part of STEAM. Our work is grounded in Two-Eyed Seeing: using one eye to recognize the strengths of Indigenous Knowledge and Ways of Knowing, and the other to recognize the strengths of Western knowledge systems. Learning to use both eyes together is essential in working towards our mission of providing Indigenous-led, culturally-relevant STEM/STEAM programming that supports both Indigenous youth and Indigenous communities.