Two Eyed Soap
(Show Slide 1)
Runtime: 20 minutes
Thank you for coming —it is wonderful seeing you all. I am glad you took the time to come
—It’s an honor to be here. What I’m about to share comes from a place of deep urgency and hope,
and it requires a specific kind of space to land. So, I have a request —for the next 20 minutes,
I ask for your uninterrupted attention. Please hold your questions; there will be time for them later.
To begin, I’d like to share a poem I wrote:
(Show Slide 2)
How do you build something that lasts?
It's Elemental — You take some Trees and reduce them to Wood.
You take a Mountain and level it to Iron without slag.
Using your Hammer, you pound the Iron and shape it to your Plan.
Use the Iron to grow some Nuts and Bolts —and Screw (it) —some Nails too.
Cut the Wood and Nail it up. Bolt the tresses and screw them in - it's nuts.
But that doesn’t mean it will last. The design and the plan matter.
But for what Purpose are you building? What will be the Load? Who is it for? Why will it
get used? Where will it be? —because the weather matters.
How will it be exposed? —to the Elements?
How will it leave its Stain? —With Stain to withstand?
If We want to build something that lasts,
Perhaps We should look to the Forests for their Wisdom
—instead of just Wood —for they have been here —not for Millennials but for Eons.
(Pause.) Hmm... But for what purpose are you building? What will be its load?
(Let the questions settle over the audience.) These questions are from that poem I wrote, 'Bucket of Bolts and a Hammer.'
They have haunted me since. Because we are all building, all the time —our careers,
our families, our communities. But we rarely stop to ask the most important thing:
What is the load our building is meant to carry?
(Show Slide 3)
I learned the cost of what building wrong leads to. I drank the water in Flint. (Pause.)
That wasn't just a failure of engineering; it was a failure of purpose.
The load —our health, our children's lives —was not the priority. And as a father,
my fear was now present: how do I help build a world for my son that won't poison him?
Years earlier, I tried to build him armor. When bugs swarmed him on a walk, I gave him my hat.
I tried to swat them away. Nothing worked. Then he found a turkey feather in the mud.
(Show Slide 4) And I told him a story: 'Turkeys eat bugs. Maybe the bugs’’ll be afraid of you'
—as I slipped the feather into his hat. And the bugs? They stopped bothering him.
(Show Slide 5)
That moment with my son sent me back to stories from my ancestors. It sparked a story
of my own that weekend —of a boy named Binesi, on a river much like ours can be at times
—just as swarmed and desperate and afraid.
Binesi’s father says, 'Nibi aawan bimaadiziwin —Water is life'. In other words
—learn to persevere through life's tests. And then he showed how ecosystems work:
the fish eating larvae, the frogs eating flies. That the world was designed to protect him
– if he learned to see it with reciprocal eyes.
That feather with my son wasn't a weapon. It was a key. A key to seeing the world not
as a collection of threats to be fought or ignored, but as a system of relationships to be
understood. It was my first, clumsy attempt to make what I’d later call Two-Eyed Soap."
And you know, there is something else in Binesi. There is a boy whose brain might have been
wired a little differently. A boy for whom the buzz of the flies wasn't just an annoyance;
it was an overwhelming sensory storm. A boy who might have been told he was 'too sensitive'
or that he just needed to 'toughen up.'
But his father didn't see a deficit. He didn't give him a sword to fight the world.
He gave him a new way to see. He didn't try to cure his sensitivity; he helped him channel it
into observation. He taught him that what felt like a vulnerability —that deep feeling,
that intense perception —could actually become his greatest strength.
It could make him a healer.
That lesson on the river —seeing the world as a system of relationships
—became a lens through which he saw everything. Binesi realized the deepest stains
weren't on hands, but on perceptions. And so he created a powerful metaphor made real:
a sacred soap. If a problem isn't a present threat but a relationship out of balance,
then the solution isn't a weapon... it's restoration —the soap cleansed perceptions
and healed divisions... and so he became: Keeper of the Soap – Gashkibidaagan.
His full story is in the book “Two-Eyed Soap”
—but that first lesson on the river in the first act changed everything. It gave us the key.
(Show Slide 6)
(7:00) Binesi’s story gave us an ancient blueprint. But a blueprint is not a building.
So we asked ourselves: what does it look like to build a school, a system of learning,
that teaches this way? Our answer is the Digital Knowledge Keepers Initiative.
(7:15) This isn't just a digital scrapbook. It's a new pedagogy.
We created the 'Elders Talk' companion guide to braid the story directly into the curriculum.
The story is the hook that makes learning sticky and profound with Project Based Learning
and Social-Emotional Learning methods.
(7:45) And to ensure it wasn't just a beautiful idea, we built it on a foundation of rigor and respect.
We’re not inventing a new curriculum... A teacher teaching Newton's Laws doesn't have to stop;
they can now frame it through Binesi's father steering the canoe through whirlpools
— the same physics, but now imbued with purpose and story.
(Show Slide 7)
(8:00) Išnála wičhóni —to observe our world with clear, two-eyed attention.
That is the first principle of our rigor. Every project —the comics, the coding,
the chemistry experiments —isn't just a standards-aligned lesson plan, but an act of deep seeing.
A physics lesson on force and tension is taught through Binesi's father steering the canoe
through whirlpools.
We didn't replace the curriculum; we re-animated it —aligning with state science, literacy,
and social studies standards and meeting NGSS, Common Core, and C3 guidelines.
In other words, we’re not inventing a new curriculum; (Show Slide 8)
we’re meeting teachers right where they already are —making our work not an extra burden,
but a powerful tool.
(Pause) (Show slide 8)
It gives knowledge a purpose and a story that can be tailored to reflect the unique character
and needs of your district utilizing PBL, SEL and UDL frameworks.
(slight pause)
The braiding of these methods ensures the DKI is authentic, inclusive, and transformative
rather than just an add-on activity. They are the scaffolding that turns the philosophy
of "Two-Eyed Seeing" into a practical, replicable model.
(Show Slide 9)
(9:45) Second, and most importantly, respect. We knew this wasn't our story to own.
That’s why our first step has been to reach out to cultural stewards and elders
with a proposal to build this work on OCAP® principles
—Ownership, Control, Access, Possession.
This is our ethical blueprint. It means the knowledge in our platform isn't mined or taken;
it is gifted and stewarded under the guidance of those who own it. This ensures that
sovereignty isn't just a concept in the story; it’s a non-negotiable protocol.
This is how we build trust, not just technology.
(Show Slide 10)
(11:30) As we said —The DKI is a digital longhouse. Computer science students build
the platform. Social studies students consult with elders. Art students draw the comics
and design layouts. STEM students turn soap-making into chemistry lessons.
This isn't interdisciplinary learning; it's re-indigenized learning.
It’s braiding knowledge back together —between departments, with the community,
and across generations.
(Pause) (Show Slide 11)
The magnificent product of all this work is the Living Report Assembly.
Students don't just present what they learned; they present what they built and healed
for their community. They stand before elders, families, and leaders and demonstrate
that they are not just students —they are keepers of knowledge and agents of healing.
They show carrying the load in action.
(Pause)
This approach isn't new to me. I actually wrote about this decades ago,
before any of this existed —before it was even an idea. I believed that the highest aim
of any creative act was to wed Reason, Imagination, and Feeling
—to help people see the deep connections beneath the surface of things.
And my poetry through the years was my attempt at manifesting that vision.
It's all I've ever tried to do.
This project —the story, the platform, the talk —is simply the conveyance of that truth.
(Show Slide 12)
So, I return to the poem's question. I have my answer.
I am building for the load of our community's future. Seven Generations Deep. (Pause)
But everyone in this room holds a feather they are stewarding as well. You are a parent,
a teacher, a builder, a dreamer, a community member, a caregiver.
That project you can't stop thinking about? That is your feather.
That child you're worried about? That is your feather.
That injustice that burns in your gut? That is your feather.
You are already holding it. The question is not if you have one, but what you will do with
the responsibility of carrying it. How will you allow it to express itself?
What is the soap you need to make to cleanse your corner of the world? To wash your own eyes and see anew?
(Show Slide 13)
(Speak slowly, with great intention.)
As you can see, we are consciously implementing Paulo Freire's critique right here.
We are rejecting the 'banking model' of education... on this stage itself.
We are not here to deposit ideas into passive accounts.
We are posing a problem... and inviting you into conscientização —an awakening.
We are calling for praxis.
We do not see you as patients to be cured by our wisdom.
We see you as co-investigators... and co-creators...
—of your own healing —of your own condition.
Because that is what —this story, this project —is all about.
It is ‘Two-Eyed Seeing’:
—one eye on storytelling
—the other on emancipatory education.
And the best way to understand this project is through two metaphors from nature.
(Show Slide 14: Fractal Globule of Pedagogy)
First, the pedagogy is structured as a 'fractal globule'
—the same pattern of braiding knowledge repeats at every scale,
from a single lesson to the entire platform, ensuring coherence.
Second, the platform itself functions as a
mycelial network—decentralized, self-healing, and growing organically through student
and community contribution. This is why it's built to last and adapt, unlike top-down
reforms that break when key people leave."
(Show Slide 16: Your Feather Awaits + QR Code. )
This is not just talking about healing —It is about facilitating it —with a fractal blueprint
for coherence encapsulated in a feather and soap, and a mycelial network for growth as
expressed in the DKI and LRA.
This is how we build an ecosystem of learning that is designed not just to function,
but to live, adapt, and endure—carrying the load for generations to come."
And here we are... doing it... with you... live.
We hope you’ll join us in this adventure.
A journey of discovery —and revelation.
Under your seats is a handout with ideas I wrote about almost 30 years ago
as I wrestled with these thoughts from different thinkers.
These and many other authors were the fuel that spurred this entire project.
Thank you.