Burning Sage

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This is the first in a series of interviews were we chat with individuals who do support work and come from a background of lived experience.
Lived experience can represent many things from overcoming health crisis or other experiences which in most cases have life-long effects on the individual. For the context of these interviews lived experience refers to one who went through hardships in life from mental health, drug abuse, intergenerational trauma, or even conflicts with the justice system.
In this episode we chat with Ryker who is a young Indigenous Man that navigated several challenges in his youth to find his way to eventually work with people in supportive environments.

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In October 2024 Christine and Arsan got to attend the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness which was held in Ottawa. They share about their experience there.
As well as having both Matthew 'Gus' Gusul and Blaine Paul coming to share about the training program they facilitated for Niginan Housing Ventures.
A short bio on both guests:
Matthew “Gus” Gusul, PhD, based in St. John’s, Newfoundland. He earned his PhD from the University of Victoria in community-based theatre. Gus has extensive experience working with Indigenous communities, including serving as a theatre instructor at Maskwacis Cultural College since 2017, where he teaches students to use puppetry to tell traditional Indigenous stories. Gus has facilitated storytelling workshops across Canada, including Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories, throughout Canada, rural Mexico, Guatemala, China, and India.
Blaine Paul, currently works for Niginan Housing Ventures as Director of Cultural Supports. He is a Knowledge Keeper originally from Saddle Lake Cree Nation.

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In this episode we get to sit down with Carola Cunningham. Carola has was the first CEO of Niginan Housing Ventures and has recently retired kinda, but is still doing a lot of work in the community.
Carola's Bio:
Carola has over 40 years of experience in education, justice, community health and wellness and addictions recovery. She has designed developed and delivered programs tailored to the needs of Indigenous communities. The majority of the client base groups service has been delivered to or for individuals coming from high risk lifestyles. Carola is a seasoned manager with 30 years of direct management skills. She possesses first hand knowledge of the complexities and diversities of Indigenous peoples in Canada and abroad. Not only has she developed, designed and initiated cutting edge programming in the human service field, Carola is confident in her expertise in negotiating and partnership planning with communities, various levels of government , profit /non profit societies as well is knowledgeable of the funding process through proposal writing. Regardless of the project and work need, Carola is consistent in the use of Indigenous methodologies and cultural protocol. She has the ability to effectively market initiatives nationally and internationally.
Throughout her career, Carola has demonstrated strong dedication in bridging cultural differences and creating understanding in the sectors she works in and with. She is an outstanding visionary who supports the changing needs of the people and has been repeatedly recognized by communities and peers as an individual with a diverse skill set and exceptional abilities.

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We introduce ourselves, and talk a bit about the intentions of the podcast.
Topics include mental health, deaths related to homelessness, and of course, what it's like working in the field.

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