Joseph Couture (1930–2007), known affectionately as “Dr. Joe,” stood at the centre of some of the greatest political, social, and intellectual struggles of Aboriginal peoples in contemporary Canada. A profound thinker and writer, as well as a gifted orator, he easily walked two paths, as a respected Elder and traditional healer and as an educational psychologist, one of the first Aboriginal people in Canada to receive a PhD. A Metaphoric Mind brings together for the first time key works selected from among Dr. Joe’s writings, published and unpublished. Shaped by his social science training but also by his apprenticeship in Medicine Ways, his writings allow us to experience the richness and power of fully functional Indigenous culture.

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Ruth Couture has authored research reports for the Mistissini Cree and, with Dr. Joseph Couture, for the University of Saskatchewan’s Indigenous Peoples’ Health Research Centre and the Aboriginal Peoples’ Collection, Public Safety Canada.

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Virginia McGowan is adjunct associate professor with the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology in the Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University. She has been involved in applied anthropology research on the health and well-being of indigenous peoples for over twenty years.

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