Murdena Marshall (1942-2018)
We lament the loss of mentor, colleague and friend Murdena Marshall after a long period of ill health. Murdena is a generous Mi’kmaw Elder, teacher and researcher whose love of and belief in her people translated into a lifetime of tireless giving. While faculty at Cape Breton University, with a small group of likeminded and dedicated colleagues, she helped to forge Mi’kmaw Studies, now Unama’ki College, including the fostering of culturally appropriate post-secondary science education. Working with Prof. Cheryl Bartlett, Canada Research Chair in Integrative Science, Murdena and her husband Albert envisioned a world view that incorporated Indigenous and Western science, and they lectured widely on the principle of “two-eyed seeing.” Murdena worked on two publications with CBU Press, both intended for younger audiences, but valued by people of all ages. Muin aqq L’uiknek te’sijik Ntuksuinu’k / Muin and the Seven Bird Hunters: Mi’kmawey Tepkikewey Musikiskey A’tukwaqn / A Mi’kmaw Night Sky Story (CBU Press 2010) enlivens the Mi’kmaw story of the constellation Ursa Major (the Big Dipper) and its seasonal traverse of the night sky. Illustrated by Kristy Read and Sana Kavanagh, and co-authored by the late Lillian Marshall, who died just this spring, Cheryl Bartlett and Prune Harris, Muin is being developed into a digital presentation by the Halifax Discovery Centre’s portal planetarium to bring the legend to young Nova Scotian across the province. Murdena and her lifetime friends Diana Denny, Flo Young, Susie Marshall, along with Prune Harris, Cheryl Bartlett and Mi’kmaw artist Gerald Gloade, put together a collection of Mi’kmaw stories the Elders felt evoked Mi’kmaq Wisdom for Pregnancy and Birth. The result is Nkij’inen Teluet / Our Grandmothers’ Words: Kina’matnewe’l Telimuksi’ki We’wkl Atukwaqnn, Traditional Stories for Nurturing (CBU Press 2013). Traditional child raising practices recognize that child raising begins the moment pregnancy is known. The book shares the Grandmothers’ understandings for pregnancy and birth, as well as some traditional stories that are used to help guide and nurture parents and children as they grow together. Murdena is missed by her husband Albert, six surviving children and a grateful nation. 
The 2010 launch of Muin and the Seven Bird Hunters. (l-r) Lindsay Marshall, Lillian Marshal, Murdena Marshall, Prune Harris, Cheryl Bartlett, Gerald Gloade.