Case Study to Illustrate Two-eyed Seeing and the Richness of Indigenous Knowledge in Food Preservation

This work was motivated by the need to co-create an activity that illustrates the richness of Etuaptmumk (two-eyed seeing) and the complimentary nature of different ways of knowing. A fourth-year technical elective course at a Canadian University Chemical Engineering program was selected. The materials were co-developed using lived experiences of the team recognizing the richness of Indigenous knowledge systems and its relationship with Western ways of engineering knowledge. The delivery method was based on participatory learning, specifically story sharing, non-verbal/kinesthetic, and learning maps/interconnection. The making of pemmican (from the Cree pimîhkân) was selected as food preservation example that ties together traditional knowledge with food engineering nutritional and physico-chemical properties and preservation to examine the “energy bar.” The making of pemmican provided a tangible, hands-on learning experience tied to course topics demonstrating the richness of Indigenous knowledge, interconnectedness of the topics, and ways of learning outside of the traditional engineering lecture delivery structure.