We are honored to welcome our next guest, Dr. Michael Yellow Bird.
Dr. Michael Yellow Bird joins us from Manitoba, Canada, to share his study and practice of Neurodecolonization focusing on Indigenous Mindfulness. He has facilitated mindfulness to indigenous students, teachers, administrators, incarcerated populations, homeless youth, conference attendees, and health professionals.
He is the Dean of the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Manitoba, MB, Canada. He will speak to his threefold process of Decolonizing our minds and bringing us back to harmony with our World.
Dr. Michael Yellow Bird works with Tribal and Indigenous Peoples to bring mindfulness and neurodecolonization approaches to these communities for healing and to improve wellness. He uses neuroscience research to examine how mindfulness approaches and traditional Indigenous contemplative practices can train the mind and positively change the structure and function of the brain. He studies how experiences and perceptions change the brain (neuroplasticity); shape our DNA and affect the expression of our genes; activate different brain regions, change our brain waves, and shape specialized brain cells such as mirror neurons; and alter our neurotransmitters and modulators. Dr. Michael Yellow Bird uses his work to translate the neuroscience of mindfulness and neurodecolonization to Tribal and Indigenous communities so they can understand why and how mindfulness and Indigenous contemplative practices work.
He has held faculty appointments in the schools of social work at the University of British Columbia, University of Kansas, Arizona State University, and Humboldt State University. He was the Director of the Tribal and Indigenous Peoples Studies program at North Dakota State University. He is presently the Dean of the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Manitoba, MB, Canada.