Our guest this week is Shakara (Shak) Liddelow-Hunt, a researcher, advocate, and community builder centering the mental health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LGBTQIA+ young people.

Shak is Wajarri Yamatji and grew up on Noongar Country. Their work challenges Western research norms, making space for Indigenous methods that honor community and story. Our conversation was a reminder that research environments can — and must — be crafted with care, humility, and cultural safety. Shak’s work uplifts youth voices, showing that the ancestors are reflected in them and that their brilliance shapes the futures we’re all moving toward.

Interested in learning more after our conversation? You can explore Shak’s project, Walkern Katatdjin (Rainbow Knowledge) here.

Tending Our Roots is co-hosted by Drs. Miigis Gonzalez (Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe) and Jill Fish (lineal descendent of the Tuscarora Nation).

This podcast was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and supported by the CIRCLE P50 Center of Excellence funded through the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health (Award Number P50DA058619). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Production was completed by Solar Powered Studios in St. Paul, MN.

Podcast artwork was completed by Marlena Myles, a Spirit Lake Dakota, Mohegan, Muscogee artist.

The song, “The Best of Me” is used with the permission of Anishinaabe and First Nations singer-songwriter, Leonard Sumner.

Listen as we visit with Shawn Wilson, a researcher, teacher, and storyteller from the Opaskwayak Cree Nation in northern Canada.

Shawn reminds us that research itself can be ceremony. Now based on Syilx territory in British Columbia, Shawn’s work spans continents — from Turtle Island to Australia — grounded always in relationships and respect for Indigenous knowledge systems. In this conversation, he reflects on what it means to live a life of ceremony, to see the universe as a web of relationships, and to change the world by changing how we relate to one another. We also laugh about “big words” like epistemology and ontology and celebrate his joyful self-proclaimed title: IndigiNerd. For Shawn, research is not just a method — it’s a way of life.

Interested in learning more after our conversation? Check out more of Shawn’s work, and grab copies of Research is Ceremony and Research and Reconciliation.

Tending Our Roots is co-hosted by Drs. Miigis Gonzalez (Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe) and Jill Fish (lineal descendent of the Tuscarora Nation).

This podcast was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and supported by the CIRCLE P50 Center of Excellence funded through the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health (Award Number P50DA058619). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Production was completed by Solar Powered Studios in St. Paul, MN.

Podcast artwork was completed by Marlena Myles, a Spirit Lake Dakota, Mohegan, Muscogee artist.

The song, “The Best of Me” is used with the permission of Anishinaabe and First Nations singer-songwriter, Leonard Sumner.

This week we’re Tending Our Roots with Susan Beaulieu, an Anishinaabe woman and citizen of the Red Lake Nation who has spent two decades working with Indigenous communities and the last decade supporting healing from collective, ancestral, and individual trauma.

A facilitator, teacher, and student of Life, Susan reminds us that healing begins within, where we hold the most power and responsibility. In this episode, Susan offers tools for reconnecting body, mind, heart, and spirit, guiding us toward re-membering — bringing ourselves and our communities back into balance. Her teachings call us to the ongoing, courageous work of healing, not only for ourselves, but for the generations yet to come.

Interested in hearing more from Susan? Hear more from her here.

Tending Our Roots is co-hosted by Drs. Miigis Gonzalez (Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe) and Jill Fish (lineal descendent of the Tuscarora Nation).

This podcast was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and supported by the CIRCLE P50 Center of Excellence funded through the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health (Award Number P50DA058619). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Production was completed by Solar Powered Studios in St. Paul, MN.

Podcast artwork was completed by Marlena Myles, a Spirit Lake Dakota, Mohegan, Muscogee artist.

The song, “The Best of Me” is used with the permission of Anishinaabe and First Nations singer-songwriter, Leonard Sumner.