Leigh Joseph

Biography

Leigh Joseph is an ethnobotanist, researcher and entrepreneur from the Squamish First Nation. She contributes to cultural knowledge renewal in connection to Indigenous plant and land-based relationships.


Leigh holds a BSc in Botany, MSc and PhD in Ethnobotany. She is the co-director and subject of the documentary Walking with Plants, which was nominated for 3 Leo Awards. Her writing has been published in the journals Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, Canadian Journal of Botany and International Journal of Indigenous Health and she contributed a chapter on the renewal of Indigenous plant knowledge to the book Plants, People, and Places.


Leigh aims to contribute her voice as an Indigenous academic and entrepreneur so that other Indigenous authors and students will feel themselves represented and reflected in ethnobotany literature. Her book, Held by the Land: A Guide to Indigenous Plants for Wellness, is a bestselling Canadian nonfiction work that’s part narrative, part field guide and recipe book. It draws on her lived experience as an Indigenous woman, her training in Western Science, and her cultural journey toward identity.