Yesenia Navarrete Hunter is an Assistant Professor of History at Heritage University, located on the traditional lands of the Yakama People. Her work centers the braided histories of immigrants and settlers and their impact on Indigenous peoples. Her work is guided by the question: How do people make place and create rhythms of belonging in fragile spaces? The aesthetics of her work are guided by elements of place, memory , embodied practices, and relationality. Along with her scholarly work, Yesenia and the Hunter Family explore questions of belonging through what they call "Hunter Gatherings,” events that invite others to participate in dialogue and making. Hunter's art and scholarship are fueled by her role as a mother and deeply influenced by the belief that belonging is more than a basic human need, it also operates as a motivation and expression and can link as to living big full lives.