Dr. Joseph Gone - Indigenizing Health Symposium 2025 II  Special Lecture

Waakebiness Institute for Indigenous Health

Part of 2025 Annual Indigenizing Health Symposium hosted by the Ontario NEIHR-WIIH/University of Toronto

Askaakamigokwewigamig (Mother Earth Teaching Lodge, 20 Willcocks St., Courtyard, University of Toronto).

The Ontario Network Environments for Indigenous Health Research (NEIHR), and the Waakebiness Institute for Indigenous Health (WIIH) at the University of Toronto invite you to attend a continued instalment of the <a href="https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/1056717182539?aff=oddtdtcreator" title="https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/1056717182539?aff=oddtdtcreator">2025 Annual Indigenizing Health Symposium</a> with Keynote Speaker <a href="https://anthropology.fas.harvard.edu/people/joseph-gone" title="https://anthropology.fas.harvard.edu/people/joseph-gone" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Dr. Joseph Gone</a>. Please see the abstract for the talk and speaker bio below.Date: Friday 23 May 2025Time: 9:30 – 12:00pm EDTLocation: This special lecture is a hybrid event being hosted in person at Askaakamigokwewigamig Mother Earth Learning Lodge (20 Wilcocks St., Toronto, ON M4S 1C6) and online via Zoom.A light breakfast will be served, and Ceremony will be led by Knowledge Keeper Clayton Shirt.Title: American Indian Traditional Healing: Expressions of Alter-Native Psy-enceAbstract: American Indian communities exhibit inequities in psychological distress, disability, and dis-order. Despite such disparities, mental health researchers and professionals in these settings report that community advocates, gatekeepers, and other tribal members express concerns about the cultural relevance of mainstream professional treatments. Instead, in the wake of a brutal Euro-American colonization, many American Indians today assert that “our culture is our treatment.” As a result, there remains widespread interest in integrating Indigenous traditional therapeutic approaches into mental health and substance abuse treatment throughout Indian Country. A necessary first step toward harnessing traditional healing in treatment programs is broader familiarity with these approaches, which themselves have changed over time. In this presentation I will review and describe documented instances of Indigenous traditional healing that I have encountered in various projects throughout my career as a research psychologist. Taking care to share only that knowledge which has been shared with me for these purposes, I will reflect on the prospects of Indigenous traditional therapeutic practices to reflect and express an alter-Native psy-ence of mental health.Speaker Bio: Joseph P. Gone (Aaniiih-Gros Ventre) is the Faculty Director of the Harvard University Native American Program and an international expert in the psychology and mental health of American Indians and other Indigenous peoples. A professor at Harvard University, Dr. Gone has collaborated with tribal communities for 30 years to critique conventional mental health services and to harness traditional culture and spirituality for advancing Indigenous well-being. As a clinical-community psychologist and action researcher, he has published over 100 scientific articles, and received recognition in his fields through more than 25 fellowships and career awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship. Dr. Gone is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Illinois, and a tribal citizen of the Fort Belknap Indian Community in Montana, where he served for a brief time as the Chief Administrative Officer. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.

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