Wisdom Engaged

Leslie Main Johnson is Professor Emerita of Anthropology at Athabasca University. She is an ethnographer and ethnobiologist who has worked with Indigenous peoples in northwestern Canada since the 1980s. Earle H. Waugh is Professor Emeritus and was Director of the Centre for the Centre for Health and Culture in the Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine at the University of Alberta in Edmonton upon his retirement.

Acknowledgements xi

i Contexts and Holistic Approaches to Northern Community Well-Being

1 Traditional Knowledge, Healing, and Wellness
An Introduction // Leslie Main Johnson

2 Making and Taking Medicine
Indigenous and Western Therapeutics in an Early Contact Eastern
Mackenzie Delta Society, 1858–1920 // Walter Vanast

3 Illness and Power in Times of Contact
Gitxsan and Witsuwit’en Narratives of Healing // Leslie Main Johnson

4 “Our Food Is Our Medicine”
Traditional Knowledge and Traditional Plant Foods for Health and Well-Being
in the Canadian North and Alaska // Nancy J. Turner

5 Cranberries Are Medicine
Monitoring, Sharing, and Consuming Cranberries in Fort McKay // Janelle Marie Baker and the Fort McKay Berry Group

6 Huckleberries, Food Sovereignty, Cumulative Impact, and Community Health
Reflections from Northern British Columbia, Canada // Leslie Main Johnson, Darlene Vegh, and Ruby E. Morgan

7 Conditions for Well-Being
Sustainatibily of an Inuit Subsistence System in a Globalized World // Keiichi Omura

8 Inuvialuit Nautchiangit, Relationships between People and Plants
A Project to Document Traditional Plant Knowledge // Inuvialuit Regional Corporation

9 Community Context, Research Methods, and Cultural Ethics in the Plants for Life Project, Délı̨ne // Christopher Fletcher

10 Life Transformation and Volunteerism in Teetł’itZheh
Pathway to Community Well-Being // Thea Luig

ii Northern Community Voices on Wellness

11 Sip’xw Hligetdin
Demonstrating the Strength, Education, Readiness, and Responsibility to Speak in the Feasthall // Art Mathews, Sim’oogit T’enim Gyet

12 Seaweed Harvesting and My Uncle’s Stories // Della M. Cheney, Stakawas, Katsawa

13 Life at Moose Lake
Traditional Life in Fort McKay Territory and the Impacts of Oil Sands Mining // Celina Harpe-Cooper

14 Health Is Living Well According to Kaska Values
Kaska Women’s Words // Linda G. McDonald and Mida Donnessey

15 Wisdom for Well-Being
Gwich’in Elders’ Teachings // Mary Teya, Annie B. Gordon, Mabel English, and Alestine Andre

16 Healing and Spiritual Knowledge of Délı̨ne and Plants for Life // Morris Neyelle and Bernice Neyelle

17 Words of a Traditional Healer from Fort Resolution, Northwest Territories // Robert Beaulieu

18 Pathways and Choices
Concluding Words // Leslie Main Johnson

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