"I listened to my mum, my dad, my gramma, that is why I am still here. That is how you stay alive." —Mida Donnessey

Wisdom Engaged demonstrates how traditional knowledge, Indigenous approaches to healing, and the insights of Western bio-medicine can complement each other when all voices are heard in a collaborative effort to address changes to Indigenous communities’ well-being. In this collection, voices of Elders, healers, physicians, and scholars are gathered in an attempt to find viable ways to move forward while facing new challenges. Bringing these varied voices together provides a critical conversation about the nature of medicine; a demonstration of ethical commitment; and an example of building successful community relationships.

Contributors: Alestine Andre, Janelle Marie Baker, Robert Beaulieu, Della M. Cheney, Stakawas, Katsawa, Mida Donnessey, Mabel English, Christopher Fletcher, Fort McKay Berry Group, Annie B. Gordon, Celina Harpe-Cooper, Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, Leslie Main Johnson, Thea Luig, Art Mathews, Sim’oogit T’enim Gyet, Linda G. McDonald, Ruby E. Morgan, Bernice Neyelle, Morris Neyelle, Keiichi Omura, Mary Teya, Nancy J. Turner, Walter Vanast, Darlene Vegh.

Leslie Main Johnson is Associate Professor in the Centre for Work and Community Studies and the Centre for Integrated Studies, Athabasca University. Her research interests include ethnoecology, traditional knowledge, ethnobiology, subsistence, and concepts of health and healing among northwestern Canadian First Nations. She is a co-editor of Landscape Ethnoecology, Concepts of Physical and Biotic Space, with Eugene S. Hunn.

Leslie Main Johnson's profile page

Earle H. Waugh is a professor of religious studies at the University of Alberta. He is the co-editor of Native Religious Traditions (WLU Press), and the author of The Munshidin of Egypt: Their World and Their Song and the Alberta Elders’ Cree Dictionary).

Earle H. Waugh's profile page

"[Wisdom Engaged] gives compelling evidence that Indigenous health is fundamentally tied to land, language, and culture…. Wisdom Engaged shows that decolonisation means a return to Indigenous peoples of the power they once had over their own health and well-being. This is a crucial first step on the long road to reconciliation.” Jeff Kochan, Canadian Dimension Magazine, November 2019

"This text will be of value to novice readers seeking an entry point to learn more about indigenous traditional healing practices. Summing Up: Recommended." S. Perreault, CHOICE Magazine, July 2020

"These crucial studies provide a base of evidence for how people want to live rather than being dictated to by industrial interests in their homelands. They provide a rich vision of a lived environment."

Robert Wishart, Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, University of Aberdeen

"Wisdom Engaged examines the different aspects of traditional knowledge and its usage in daily routines that support a healthy lifestyle… Readers will encounter rich evidence of the interconnectivity that Indigenous peoples’ well-being has with traditions, communities, and culture…. [Editor Leslie Main Johnson] accomplishes her goal: to center traditional knowledge in exploring methods to advance individual and community health as well as healing in northwestern North American Indigenous communities. All those interested in traditional knowledge, Western biomedicine, or Indigenous and environmental health should read this compelling book.”

Kathie Beebe, Native American and Indigenous Studies Journal, Spring 2022

“This superb volume focuses on “the role of traditional knowledge” in “healing and health” and “the interrelated web of traditions, culture, communities and wellbeing” among Indigenous communities in Northern Alberta, BC, Yukon, Northwest Territories and Alaska. Editor Leslie Johnson, a professor emerita of anthropology at Athabasca University, brings academics, elders and traditional healers together in a book highlighted by first-hand accounts such as that by Celina Harpe-Cooper, an elder in For McKay whose discussion of cranberry picking sharply reveals the local impacts of oil sands development.” AlbertaViews, July/Aug 2020