With Host Tam Dillon @tamdillon & Guest Bianca Vernes
This opening episode of Talks with the Elders begins the new year and Quarter One with a grounded conversation on learning across cultural lines with responsibility, respect and discernment. Together, we explore what it means to learn from multiple cultures and medicine people without collecting, blending or bypassing lineage. The conversation centres on lived experience, ethical learning and the importance of grounding into one’s own ancestral heritage as a foundation for steady practice. This episode offers thoughtful reflection and practical insight for practitioners navigating questions of ancestry, identity and accountability in their work.
ABOUT BIANCA VERNES
Traditional Healer | Artist | Wildling Bianca has lived with and learned from multiple cultures and medicine people, bringing a deeply relational and grounded approach to her work. Her focus is on empowering women, youth and community through practice that honours lineage, place and responsibility.
Tam Dillon is a mentor, educator and founder of Critical Mass. She works with practitioners, healers and teachers to integrate ancient wisdom with modern systems so their calling becomes a lived, sustainable practice. Her work centres clarity, structure and ethical embodiment in spiritual and healing work.
Talks with the Elders is a long-form conversation series within Critical Mass. Each episode features elders and experienced practitioners sharing wisdom shaped by time, lived experience and responsibility. The series centres lineage, integrity and the realities of sustaining ethical spiritual and healing work over the long term.
