Styawat / Leigh Joseph

I am an ethnobotanist, researcher and entrepreneur from the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) First Nation and through my work I contribute to cultural knowledge renewal in connection to Indigenous plant and land-based relationships.

My research is motivated by giving back to Indigenous communities, and to the land, through supporting the reconnection to land-based and plant-based knowledge and access. Broadly speaking, my current work focuses on the intersections between ethnobotany (the study of the cultural interrelationships between people, plants, and place) and Indigenous cultural political resurgence. I explore how culturally important plants and places, and the knowledge associated with them, support healing from intergenerational trauma and empower Indigenous Peoples and communities to define their own land-based health and wellness practices.

In my writing and research I have developed Indigenous frameworks and tools for carrying out respectful, reciprocal and responsible research in partnership with Indigenous communities. Through my scholarly contributions to teaching and research I endeavour to advance critical discussions around the impacts of colonization on Indigenous land-based and cultural plant knowledge.

I have worked extensively with my home community of Sḵwx̱wú7mesh as well as several other First Nations communities including Haida, W̱SÁNEĆ, lək̓ʷəŋən (Lekwungen), Tr'ondëk Hwëchin, Tahltan, Tla-o-qui-aht and Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw in Kingcome Inlet in Kwakwaka'wakw territory. Through this work I have focused largely on Indigenous knowledge renewal and on building connections to place through working with culturally important plants and places. This work has included focusing on plant foods, medicines, materials, and the managed ecosystems that support many of these plants including estuary root gardens, managed camas meadows and forest gardens.

I aim to contribute my voice, as an Indigenous academic and entrepreneur, to the broader discourse of place-based knowledge renewal so that other Indigenous authors and students will feel represented and reflected in ethnobotanical literature.

REFEREED JOURNAL ARTICLES

Joseph, L., Cuerrier, A., and Mathews, D. 2022. Shifting Narratives, Recognizing Resilience: Taking Anti-Oppressive and Decolonial Approaches to Ethnobotanical Research with Indigenous Communities in Canada. Botany (100):65-81.

Joseph, L. (2021). Walking on our lands again: Turning to culturally important plants and Indigenous conceptualizations of health in a time of cultural and political resurgence. International Journal of Indigenous Health, 16(1), 165-179. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/10.32799/ijih.v16i1.33205

Joseph, L., and Turner N. J. 2020.” The Old Foods Are the New Foods!”: Erosion and Revitalization of Indigenous Food Systems in Northwestern North America. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. 4:270. DOI:10.3389/fsufs.2020.596237

BOOKS

Joseph, L. (2023). Held By the Land: A Guide to Indigenous Plants for Wellness. Wellfleet Press New York, NY. (Released March 7, 2023)

Andy MacKinnon, Jim Pojar, Leigh Joseph, Jamie Fenneman. (Forthcoming). Vascular Plants of Coastal British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest. Royal British Columbia Museum Press, Victoria BC. Coming Fall 2025.

Joseph, L. (Forthcoming). The Land Knows Me: A Nature Walk Exploring Indigenous Wisdom. Becker & mayer! Kids, New York, NY (Coming March 2025).

BOOK CHAPTERS

Joseph, L. (2020). “Chapter 22: “Passing it on”: renewal of indigenous plant knowledge systems and indigenous approaches to education,” in Plants, People and Places. The Roles of Ethnobotany and Ethnoecology in Indigenous Peoples' Land Rights in Canada and Beyond, ed N. Turner (Montreal, QC: McGill-Queen's University Press), 386–401.

Films

Walking with Plants short documentary co-directed by Leigh Joseph and Trevor Bennet: Synonpsis: An ethnobotanist contemplates her relationship with plants and their role as teachers as she comes to a deeper understanding of her identity as a Skwxwu7mesh woman. (https://www.knowledge.ca/program/walking-plants?check_logged_in=1)

Website

Personal: https://www.leighjoseph.com

Business: https://skwalwen.com