Oral Traditions play an important role among many Indigenous communities in maintaining their cultural heritage and values. These traditions are crucial in preserving history, transmitting knowledge, imparting cultural values, maintaining linguistic diversity, and fostering cultural identity across generations. For Indigenous Peoples, the spoken word holds immense power and is seen as a primary medium to connect with the past, present, and future.  

An introduction to this new platform on the SFU Library website!

Ribbon skirts are beautiful, symbolic pieces of clothing that have been worn since the early 1800’s. Along with other types of cloth, silk ribbons were introduced by colonial traders and over time were added to Indigenous decorations and ceremonial practices. (Metcalfe, 2010) “Ribbons were also appliquéd onto clothing, sometimes using a mirror-image design with ribbons of contrasting colors.

Two-Eyed Seeing or Etuaptmumk, the Mi’kmaq word for “the gift of multiple perspectives”, is a guiding principle developed by Mi'kmaq Elder Albert Marshall of the Eskasoni First Nation in 2004. It refers to “learning to see from one eye with the strengths of Indigenous ways of knowing and from the other eye with the strengths of Western ways of knowing and to using both of these eyes together” (Bartlett, Marshall, & Marshall, 2012, p. 335).