Shirley Williams Kusemaat

Kusemaat became a licensed nurse in 2002. Twelve years were spent working within the scope of a western licensure. Now, like a salmon swimming upstream, she is focused on Indigenous Public Health. Her passion for holistic healthcare of ancient time began when she started to work for her own community, which is the federally recognized tribe of Lummi Nation, located in the upper most corner of the Pacific Northwest. Today, because of Seli7 etse Sxwo’le – Spirit of the Sxwo’le (reef-net), Kusemaat addresses root cause of trauma for Indigenous Peoples and Nature. She is bound to protecting the sovereignty of the Salish Sea for 7th generation sustainability. She envisions these ancestral homelands as a medical office based in nature, for without mother earth, we do not have our health.