Piloting Natural Highs in Australia - a Vision for Aboriginal Youth

In this episode of "This BADASS Sober Life" you will learn:
-Tess’s experience of growing up in Boulder’s alternative subculture and her journey towards Natural Highs
- How Natural Highs' offering access to healthy altered states of consciousness is what helped supported Tess choose sobriety
- A journey towards leadership
- The role of the Yerba Mate ritual

- The role Natural Highs played in supporting Tess’s recovery from a TBI

- If the alternatives (to drug & alcohol culture) are there and if they are good, we will respond
- The collaboration between Tess and Aboriginal Australian Elders to bring a hands-on Natural Highs curriculum which integrated local aboriginal traditions
- “This thing called addiction wasn’t something that existed prior to settler colonialism in Australia”
- Suggestions for what to do and not to do when piloting your own Natural Highs site

- The gift of channeling uncomfortable feelings into creativity
- How a community is key in sustaining a life that embraces healthy alternatives
- Tess’s message for the world: "Listen to the noise in order to get underneath it and find whatever kernel of wisdom is there."



Your Guest:
Tess Eckert has been a peer mentor for Natural Highs for nearly a decade and piloted and ran Natural Highs in the Bundjalung Nation (Regional Northern NSW) in Australia between 2014-2019, collaborating with Aboriginal elders, health organizations, schools and local youth in its planning and delivery. Tess is an educator, expressive arts practitioner, and
dancer and uses these creative modalities for community building, healing, and transformative processes for youth empowerment and social justice. Eckert is a descendent of German, Swedish and Chickasaw First Nations ancestors. Having recently migrated back to Colorado from Australia, central to Eckert's collaborations is an investigation of how to create a sense of belonging to our inner and outer landscapes. She is currently studying a Masters of Arts in Social Work with a concentration in American Indian Studies.


Your Interviewer:
Kara Ashley grew up in two places, Long Point, Ontario and Iqaluit, Nunavut. The unique ecological communities of these two places have deeply rooted her love for being in nature. They also sparked her passion for facilitating nature connection with adults and children and ensuring that the outdoor industry shifts to an inclusive community that supports equitable access to nature and outdoor recreational activities. Kara is an expedition sea kayak guide in Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, and a child caregiver. She is mesmerized by children’s curiosity and would be happy spending the rest of her days working with children and youth.

Kara is also a recent undergrad graduate whose Interdisciplinary degree is an integration of an Adventure Guiding diploma program at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia, Canada, and Environmental Studies and Peace Studies at Naropa University. Kara’s social innovation thesis focused on developing a summer empowerment climbing program, Natural Highs Iqaluit, for youth who live in Iqaluit, Nunavut. The Natural Highs climbing empowerment program was developed through the integration of rock climbing, nature connection, mindfulness practices, addictions research, and Indigenous methodologies; this program aims to be a healthy and safe space for youth to nourish their personal resilience.