back to LearnEpisode 1 with Shantelle Thompson OAM
Barkindji Warrior. Mother. World Champion. Dreaming-led Changemaker.
Our very first Mental Fitness Conversations podcast has landed and we begin with a heartbeat – and a Warrior Heart.
This inaugural series, hosted by award-winning Indigenous businesswoman and Gotcha4Life Board Member Mundanara Bayles, is produced in partnership with Black Magic Woman and centres First Nations voices. Through ten raw and powerful episodes, we explore what truly shapes and sustains mental fitness – in culture, in community and within ourselves.
To launch the series, Mundanara sits down with Shantelle Thompson OAM – a proud Barkindji and Ngiyampaa woman, mother of five, Jiu-Jitsu black belt and three-time world champion, founder of the Kiilalaana Foundation and author of the upcoming memoir Warrior Heart: Suicide to World Champion.
Known as the Barkindji Warrior, Shantelle is a storyteller, speaker and fierce advocate for her people. Her journey was seeded in the womb of her Ancestors’ Dreaming – grounded in cultural strength, resistance and purpose. While her path has led through childhood abuse, intergenerational trauma, mental illness and systems not built for her, she has never been defined by them. Instead, she has walked with radical responsibility, cultural sovereignty and the fire to reclaim her voice, identity and truth.
This episode is a celebration and an honouring of the courage it takes to come home to self – and to dream again. A return not to who she was, but to who she has always been: sovereign, powerful and Dreaming-led.
In this bold and heartfelt conversation, Shantelle shares how mental fitness is not just resilience – it is reclamation. It is breathing through silence, remembering your name and rising with your Ancestors at your back. Her leadership is an offering – to remind us that we are not broken, we are becoming.
As the creator of the Warrior Heart Movement, Shantelle weaves ancestral wisdom with modern truth-telling to create brave spaces for others to rise. Her work shows that healing is not linear, leadership is not performance and that we are the medicine we’ve been waiting for.
Why it matters
Mental Fitness Conversations is part of Gotcha4Life’s commitment to a suicide-free world, starting with stronger connections, inclusive conversations and culturally-grounded truth-telling.
In partnership with Black Magic Woman, this series reflects the depth, strength and diversity of what it means to stay mentally fit, especially for First Nations peoples.
Listen to Episode 1: Shantelle Thompson – The Barkindji Warrior
Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube or inside the Mental Fitness Gym app. Subscribe and be the first to know when new episodes drop.
Content in this podcast covers topics related to mental health, including suicide which can be confronting and distressing. Please consider your needs when listening. Click here for support services you can contact 24/7.
