A Metaphoric Mind: Selected Writings of Joseph Couture is a welcome addition to the literature on Aboriginal education, worldview, and spirituality from an Indigenous scholar. Dr. 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. His work challenged and transformed long-held views of Canada's Indigenous peoples, and his vision and leadership gave direction to many of the current fields of Aboriginal scholarship. His influence extended into numerous areas such as education, addictions and mental health treatment, community development, restorative justice, and federal correctional programming for Aboriginal peoples. With a foreword by Lewis Cardinal, A Metaphoric Mind brings together for the first time key works selected from among Dr. Joe's writings, published and unpublished. Spanning nearly thirty years, the essays invite us to share in his transformative legacy through a series of encounters, with Aboriginal spirituality and ancestral ways of knowing, with Elders and their teachings, with education and its role in politicization, self-determination, and social change, and with the restorative process and the meaning of Indigenous healing. The essays include: Indian Spirituality: A Personal Encounter; Next Time, Try an Elder!; The Role of Native Elders; Explorations in Native Knowing; Native Studies and the Academy; Aboriginal Behaviourial Trauma; A Window on Traditional Healer Activity; On Women and the Women's Circle; and Excerpts from Dialogues Between Western and Indigenous Scientists. The book includes a bibliography of Dr Couture's works, and a closing piece on My Friend Joe by Inuk Elder Sarah Anala. High recommended.
