S4E3: Kyra Chambers & Nataschaa Chatterton | Shäwthän Näzhì | October 31, 2023

S4E3: Interview with Yukon Entrepreneurs Kyra Chambers, Equine Director & Nataschaa Chatterton, Clinical Director – Shäwthän Näzhì | October 31, 2023

 

It’s Yukon Innovation Week 20223 and the Yukon Entrepreneur Podcast is once again featuring a mini-series of insightful conversations with Yukon entrepreneurs on what innovation, inspiration, wellness, and community mean to them.

 

(0:24) Kyra and Nataschaa share a bit about themselves and how their business came to be.

 

(4:12) What does innovation mean to Kyra and Natasscha? For Natasscha, innovation is seeing and creating based on what is there as opposed to not there, and for Kyra, innovation is not following the status quo or having rules that dictate your life. They share how important it is to them to create innovative ways of bringing families out on the land, empower young people to be the best that they can be, and show ways of healing through horses.

 

(6:38) Kyra is inspired in their work by the strength of the families and their willingness to be vulnerable in order to empower themselves. Nataschaa shares how their amazing team inspires them and the relationships they get to build through connection and trust.

 

(9:26) As a non-for-profit business focused on breaking down barriers, they share the difficulties of being pulled towards bureaucracy, and recognize that the expectation of policy and rules or the colonial way of being, being viewed as a functioning system creates additional challenges such as the time it takes for actions to happen.

 

(12:12) In order to help transform the systems not working, Kyra discusses the need to check in with themselves, take a moment and think about why they do the work they do, and connect back to what it means as an Indigenous person to be Indigenous. For Nataschaa, getting back to the land and remembering the importance of that relationship has as much value as getting stuff done or making money.

 

(15:44) What lessons does the Yukon have to share about what it means to bring innovation at the community level? For Nataschaa, the Yukon is a place where there are some wild spirits, where we have less fear and inhibitions about trying things, and where we tend to see each other as support instead of competition. Kyra shares that most people in the Yukon either work or use their spare time doing something they love with a focus on community.

 

(17:42) What’s next for Kyra, Nataschaa and their organization? They share that hopefully they can stop growth for a little while and really build all the meat into the growth they have had. They share that growth isn’t always getting bigger, but rather strengthening the relationships and heart of the business. They are however looking to expand further onto the land, venturing into wilder places, and spending time connecting families back to their roots. They are also focusing on their training and capacity building, working hard to understand what their role is in the Yukon, and how they can continue to support more land-based healing.

 

Thank you for listening!

 

For more information about Kyra and Nataschaa and their business please visit: https://shawthannazhi.ca/

 

For more information about Yukon Innovation Week please visit: https://yukoninnovationweek.com/