When:
Thursday, January 8, 2026
12:45 PM - 2:00 PM CT
Where: Norris University Center, Wildcat Room B, 1999 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208 map it
Audience: Faculty/Staff - Student - Public - Post Docs/Docs - Graduate Students
Cost: N/A
Contact:
Danesha Binkowski
DBinkowski@northwestern.edu
Group: Research for Indigenous Social Action & Equity (RISE) Center
Sponsor: Center for Native American and Indigenous Research (CNAIR)
Category: Multicultural & Diversity, Academic, Lectures & Meetings, Global & Civic Engagement
We are delighted to welcome Dr. Michael Yellow Bird, who will be sharing some of his work with us in a talk titled: "The Power of Ceremony: Indigenous Contemplative Practices, Neurodecolonization, Brain Ecology, and the Medicine Wheel."
Abstract
Indigenous contemplative practices and teachings have enabled Indigenous Peoples to develop an important paradigm of healing and connection to the natural world that has important implications for western medicine, health, and environmental sustainability. In this presentation, Dr. Michael Yellow Bird uses Indigenous wisdom and western science to show how Indigenous contemplative approaches can create important changes in the brain and body and can prevent, heal, and cure, many emotional and physical diseases brought about by colonization and the current Western industrial lifestyle.