Alycia's Story

Alycia's Story

Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This long, flowing conversation with poet, artist, educator and midwifery student Alycia TwoBears weaves queerness, indigeneity, trauma, plant medicine and justice into one raw, very human story. Across more than two hours, Alycia talks with host David Lewry about growing up biracial with an atheist white mum and Indigenous family history marked by residential schools, day schools and the Sixties Scoop.

She shares how that legacy fed years of anger, shaped her father’s addictions and AA journey, and later pushed her to seek healing in ceremony, sweat lodges and Indigenous midwifery. A big thread throughout is bisexuality and bi erasure. Alycia and David swap childhood crush stories, laugh about “it’s fly to be bi”, and get serious about how often people insist they “pick a side”, including within queer spaces.

Alycia’s work with youth centres on one key message: identity belongs to the person, not to other people’s rules. You’ll also hear candid talk about domestic violence, the terror of not being believed, and how encounters with police turned Alycia from reform to full abolition.

She contrasts that with grassroots mutual aid, praising organisers who keep showing up in the face of anti‑Blackness and burnout, and reminds young people: “You don’t need to ask for permission to take care of community.” From cannabis as medicine versus “drug”, to the hypocrisy of celebrating Canada Day while wearing orange shirts, to the blend of science and spirituality in birth and death, the tone swings easily between fierce political analysis, dark humour and tender vulnerability.

Anyone interested in recovery, queer identity, Indigenous resistance, or simply trying to live truer to themselves will find plenty to sit with here. What parts of your identity are you still letting other people define for you?