Tim Yearington is originally from North Bay, Ontario. As a Métis artist, writer and author with voyageur and French-Canadian heritage, Tim's ancestral home territory is Nipissing District, Mattawa and the Ottawa River Valley. After a professional career as a freelance illustrator in Ottawa, Tim changed direction and began working as a wilderness adventure guide.

An adoptee who once struggled with the personal challenges of 'identity loss', Tim was called to find his own lost native roots. Assisted by Indigenous elders, medicine people and his own ancestors, he learned the traditional teachings of the manitous (spirits), the four directions and the powerful medicine ways of the thunderbirds. Tim soon learned to 'walk his talk' with all the traditional teachings he was carrying; teachings that helped him navigate and heal his own life. It was upon this spiritual journey Tim found his way home. He then followed a personal vision and began blazing a trail of teaching traditional Indigenous knowledge to others. And along the way Tim became a traditional Indigenous knowledge keeper and educator.

Tim started in 2009 with The Medicine Wheel Project for the Near North District School Board and since then has shared traditional knowledge and teachings with many organizations in Ontario. He worked for Correctional Service Canada (Millhaven Maximum Security) as an elder and spiritual advisor. Then he worked at Queen's University as an elder/knowledge keeper with their Office of Indigenous Initiatives and as an Indigenous Curricular Innovator for their Faculty of Health Sciences. Tim also worked as an elder for Indigenous students from across Canada at the Royal Military College and as an Indigenous spiritual advisor for Canadian Forces Base, Kingston.

Tim is a passionate writer and presenter of Indigenous (Métis-Algonquin) heritage, teachings, wisdom and worldview and as a result is a very enlightening educator. He has seasoned experience working with people from all around the world. He has taught other educators, professors, teachers and students alike. He has taught traditional knowledge at many schools, colleges and universities. He has shared traditional Indigenous knowledge with government departments, Indigenous organizations, outdoor environmental education centres, social workers, psychologists, counsellors, therapists, mental health workers, nurses, doctors and a variety of other wellness providers.

Tim recognizes the importance of sharing his rock-solid foundation of traditional Indigenous knowledge with everyone. He shares teachings both indoors and outdoors in nature. Tim fosters a much needed awareness about traditional Indigenous knowledge through his inspirational books, his personable author visits, his powerful presentations, his legendary storytelling, his healing work with people on the land and his guided nature tours. Tim now resides in Kingston, Ontario. For more information visit: www.timyearington.com

WILLY DULOUP is an angry young man who desperately needs to change. Tormented by horrible nightmares of a wolf, Willy fears he's going mad. Just fired from his job, he flees Ottawa in search of answers. Upon his journey he meets a wise young Métis woman who convinces Willy to reconsider his own lost Native roots. Believing the wilderness will soothe his spirit, Willy takes a solo canoe voyage up the majestic Mattawa River where he encounters an old shaman. The shaman knows all about werewolf medicine and the mysterious power of shapeshifting. Together they paddle farther upriver to a legendary place where Willy must face the monster within.

This book is a true life tale about the good medicine of the thunderbirds. It is the deeply personal account of an adoptee who had been receiving strange intuitive clues to his lost ancestral roots since he was a boy.

While seeking out hints to his suspected Indigenous identity, guidance about his greater life purpose appeared instead. Thunderbird knowledge began to be revealed to him in a series of visions about the existence of a mysterious mountain. His visions also included the actual, earthly steps he would need to take if he stood a remote chance of making it up there.

By acting upon the inspirations of his visions and following through, the spirits of thunderbirds started to come to him. Presenting themselves as the "Old Ones", he believed his Algonquin ancestors were helping him to find his way. And so began his lengthy traditional schooling about the enlightening and empowering nature of thunderbirds and their life changing medicinal role. Although in pain, he endured the training.

Upon being told, "The weakest people need the strongest medicine", he accepted he struggled emotionally and was perpetually pining for peace. But with the aid of the thunderbirds, he at last followed the trail up the mountain. Now at the top he finally discovered the sacred high place of the thunderbird nest. And upon seeing that everything he had learned helped him to know the truth, he was finally able to realize his own.

Quest for the Thunderbird Nest is a testimony to the wondrous power of Algonquin spirituality in helping us heal and be happier human beings.

The medicine wheel is a compass that helps us find our way using the four directions of east, south, west, and north. Symbolized by the colours yellow, red, black, and white, the four directions hold "medicine" that teaches us about the four parts of our human being: our emotional, physical, spiritual, and mental realms. By learning to balance our realms of being, we come to see that we, ourselves, are the guides we seek on the path of life during our "earthwalk." At the centre of the medicine wheel we reach our inner power. Then, rooted like a mighty pine, we begin to grow and ascend higher into an awareness of living with intentional wholeness. Encompassing the beautiful wisdom of Native philosophy, the medicine wheel is a tried and true circle that teaches balance making harmony meaningful. Explore the nature of your own four directions guided by the medicine wheel. In seeing the true colours of your own spirit, you´ll be able to use the good medicine ever-present within you to enhance your world.