Elder John R. Prosper and Settler Dorothy A. Lander invite you to join them on their pilgrimage, which is guided by St. Anne, the patron saint of the Mi’kmaw people. As St. Anne’s emissary, Mi’kmaw fiddler Joe Marble, a member of Paqtnkek Mi’kmaw Nation in Antigonish County, Mi’kmaki, appeared on Facebook via a 1939 article in the diocesan newspaper The Casket, which traced his life as a virtuoso musician from his childhood in Heatherton. Sacred timing – the Facebook posting surfaced in the last week of March 2022 just as the delegation of Indigenous Canadians were in Rome demanding an apology from Pope Francis for the role of the Catholic Church in Indian Residential Schools.

Elder John R. Prosper: I encourage anyone interested in life on the Indian Reserve in the early 40’s and 50’s to read this book. It is my and the Prosper family story of how we survived the hardship and suffering when we were forced to move from Paqtnkek to the Shubenacadie Indian Reserve when the Department of Indian Affairs implemented the Centralization Policy in 1942. It is also the story of how the Dept. of Indian Affairs forced us to attend the Indian Residential School in Shubenacadie. By way of her own story, Dorothy calls on settlers to own the “truth” of their intergenerational history of white supremacy and colonization. Two-eyed-seeing as a primary resource for settler allies, demands truth before reconciliation.

John R. Prosper's profile page

Dorothy A. Lander's profile page

John R. Prosper lives at Paqtnkek Mi'kmaw Nation, Antigonish County, Mi'kmaki. He moved to Paqtnkek in 1953 to live with his Uncle Maurice Marshall and Aunt Teresa Johnson when he escaped from Shubenacadie Residential School. He retired from a 42-year career as Director of Operations at Paqtnkek in 2015. John R. is the curator for St. Anne's Church and the choir director at Immaculate Conception Church in Heatherton. John R. Prosper holds the lifetime position of Keptin of Mi'kmaw Grand Council. I encourage anyone interested in life on the Indian Reserve in the early 40's and 50's to read this book. It is also my story and the Prosper family story of how we survived the hardship and suffering when we were forced to move from Paqtnkek to the Shubenacadie Indian Reserve when the Department of Indian Affairs implemented the Centralization Policy in 1942. The Dept. of Indian Affairs forced my sisters Rita and Mary and my brother Eugene to attend the Indian Residential School in Shubenacadie. I was forced to go there myself but ran out the back door when they came to pick me up. I ran as far into the woods as I could go and stayed there until the Indian Agent left.

Dorothy Lander lives in Anrigonish County, Mi'kmaki/Nova Scotia with her husband John Graham-Pole, where they co-founded HARP Publishing The People's Press (www.harppublishing.ca), a social enterprise, multi-media publishing house dedicated to the healing arts. Dorothy is retired from two careers at Sr. Francis Xavier University (StFX), the first in Operations Management and then on Adult Education faculty. Her Nature collages from pressed botanicals (leaves, flowers, fungi) gathered from the gardens and meadows of Mi'kmaki are featured in her children's story Hmmm -M the Humdinger (HARP, 2020).

Elder Albert Marshall and his late wife, Murdena Marshall, have often described Etuaptmumk or Two-Eyed Seeing as a co-learning journey, whereby distinct perspectives are brought together to formulate a new understanding of the world, something that cannot be understood using a single perspective. They have also shared that Two-Eyed Seeing is important because when differing perspec­tives come together in a co-learning journey, we learn to listen and understand one another in respectful and reciprocal ways. In this book, John R. and Dorothy have done just that - their pilgrimage can be very much understood as a co-learning journey- a unique gift that has been created by bringing together distinct perspectives on everything from the fiddle, to the peony, to the black ash. There are so many examples of Two-Eyed Seeing all around us, all the time, if only we take the time to notice. It is so refreshing to see that John R. and Dorothy have taken the time to notice and have shared what they have learned with us all. Wela'lin/Nakkumek for allowing us, your readers, to share in your journey.

- Debbie Martin, PhD, Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples' Health & Well-Being, Dalhousie University.