Meda’s Tlingit names are Tśa Tsée Náakw, Khaat kła.at, and Jánwu Tláa. Her adopted Iñupiaq name is Tigigalook, and her adopted Cree name is Boss Eagle Spirit Woman. Her clan is Naanya.aayí and she is a child of the Kaach.aadi. Her family comes from Shtuxéen kwaan (now referred to as Wrangell, AK). Meda’s lineage also comes from Oregon, Washington, and the BC/Yukon Territories. Currently, she lives on Dena’ina lands in Anchorage, Alaska, with her fiancé, James Paoli, and their eight children.

Meda DeWitt is a Lingít traditional healer, certified massage therapist, ethno-herbalist, educator, and virtual and in-person events coordinator. DeWitt has an associate’s degree in science, an associate’s degree in human services, and an associate’s degree in Alaska Native Studies from the University of Alaska Anchorage. She has a bachelor’s degree in liberal studies: women’s rites of passage; a master’s degree in arts in Alaska Native traditional healing from the Alaska Pacific University; and is currently in an Indigenous studies doctoral program at Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi, New Zealand.

Meda focuses on a multi-faceted approach to achieving holistic broad spectrum movement building. Meda’s work revolves around the personal credo “Leave a world that can support life and a culture worth living for.” Her work experience draws from her training as an Alaska Native traditional healer and Healthy Native Communities capacity building facilitator.

References to Meda’s Work

Written

• Narrative to Accompany the Traditional Healing Certification Proposal for the implementation at Alaska Pacific University
• Relatives, Not Resources: Applying an Alaska Native Lens to Climate Sovereignty, Economic Justice, and Healing.
• State of Alaska Traditional Health and Wellness Resources Guide
• Women’s Rites of Passage, Chatter Marks Anchorage Museum
• Walking Together, Working Together: Engaging Wisdom for Indigenous Well-Being (Patterns of Northern Traditional Healing Series) Chapter 8: Women’s Rites of Passage.
• Good Medicine Article in Folk Life Magazine, Anchorage Museum Exhibit

Audio

• Indigenous traditions of healing and coming-of-age, with traditional healer Meda DeWitt
• Colonization, Inequity, & Oppression(And what we can start to do about them!)
• Indigenous Climate Action Pod – Healing Justice: An Introduction
• The Urban Auntie Show – Episode 37: Meda DeWitt, Traditional Healer
• The Wilderness Society – TWS Conf Call Audio 101921

Video

• Haa Jooní Productions
• The Wilderness Society’s Imago Initiative
• Alaska News Source video on the Good Medicine Exhibit
• Ethnobotany Panel at the AFE 2022 – Where Culture and Plants Entwine
• 3rd Ave Old IHS ceremonial cleansing and blessing
• SOK 2022 34: (10-b) Southeast Traditional Healing and Plants as Food and Medicine – Meda DeWitt

Community Organizing

• Yakutat Replaces Board, by Nat Herz: https://www.northernjournal.com/dissident-shareholders-ousted-the/ 
• Bernie Sanders “THE TIME IS NOW: A Town Hall Discussion (LIVE AT 8PM ET)”
• Why Alaskans Are Trying to Recall Their Governor
• Alaskans Take a Stand
• S’Up Alaska