NUAA Hall of Fame 2025: Shawnee Rose
Wednesday, 19 November, 2025
From DanceWize volunteer to sector leader, Shawnee Rose has spent seven years breaking down barriers, and championing the power of lived and living experience in alcohol and other drugs work.
NUAA is proud to announce Shawnee Rose as the 2025 Hall of Fame recipient, which was presented at our AGM on Tuesday 18th November. Their journey from O.G. DanceWize volunteer to respected peer advocate represents the transformative power of peer work, not just for individuals, but for the entire sector.
Journey & Path to Peer Work
Shawnee's journey with NUAA began in early 2018, when DanceWize was just emerging.
When a friend told them about this new peer-based crowd care program delivering harm reduction education at doofs and music festivals, it felt like the perfect fit.
A self-described "camp parent" who had recently completed a Diploma of Counselling, plus their own “more than colourful history with drugs”, Shawnee was keen to try their hand at trip sitting fellow festivalgoers. They'd done the Save A Mate training while in rehab, but DanceWize was different.
"This program was about recognising and drawing upon my own lived and living experiences, not just a basic, one-size fits all response to drugs and people experiencing emergencies on them,” Shawnee explains.
After contacting NUAA, doing interviews, and completing training alongside 20 to 30 other volunteers from all different backgrounds, something clicked.
"We started working festivals and hitting up protests promoting law reform as a united front and we all shared the same feeling of finally finding our tribe.
“We felt like we were at the frontline of the precipice of change for the drug user community. It was amazing."
That feeling hasn't faded. Shawnee remains one of the "O.G's" of DanceWize today, still loving that they can use their experience to educate and assist others.
Building a Career in Peer Work
As time passed, Shawnee started doing casual rostering for DanceWize and spent more time in the office. Known as one of the few in the DanceWize cohort with IV drug use experience, they soon found themselves working alongside other staff in NUAA's NSP. After about a year, when COVID hit, they moved into the role of NSP Specialist.
But Shawnee wanted more.
They started a role as NSP and Outreach Worker for KRC, but it wasn't a peer role.
"I wanted to be able to identify or at least give back to the community on a more personal level in some way."
Around this time, they started with Unharm's Story Lab Program, working to change the narrative of how drug users are represented in media and journalism. The goal was to give people who use drugs a face and a story rather than a preconceived judgment.
Shawnee trained in narration, storytelling, received legal and media training, and became certified in the Harwood Theory of Public Innovation.
They started holding online Community Conversations with other people who use drugs all around Australia, uncovering what the community aspires for and what kind of reform they most want to see, so Unharm could start lobbying towards it. Interviews with The Guardian and Vice followed, and they were featured in Connor Woodman's book Meth Road.
All the while, Shawnee was working in the sector, advocating for change, and participating in consultations with NUAA, from the Ice Enquiry to finding what brands the community preferred for their tips at the NSP.
After leaving KRC, Shawnee started at the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre (MSIC), where they remain today, as a Health Education Officer, a member of the Health Promotion Team, and staff support for the Consumer Action Group.
The Evolution of Peer Work
Looking back, Shawnee observes how dramatically peer work has changed.
"Peer work wasn't really an existing thing at the start of my journey," they note.
Their first experience of a true peer was the Drug and Alcohol Nurse at detox, who never shied away from sharing what his use was like and where it took him.
"Part way through peer workers emerged but few and far between. A somewhat gimmicky type role that seemed to go nowhere, regardless of intention.”
“An organisation may have had 1 (or 2 peers if they were progressive) and pay them a wage now as opposed to Coles vouchers but they weren't being utilised to their full capacity, as if they still weren't ready to be trusted to do the work."
Now there's a more open mindset, but Shawnee notes they've always walked the line between peer and professional.
"Neither being outright denied, but neither being mutually exclusive."
The Power of Lived Experience
What makes peer work unique and powerful? For Shawnee, it comes down to knowledge, experience, and the way these bring people together in a way no other field experiences.
"AOD is one of the only fields where without the expertise of lived and living experience in the room, there is inherently a divide that is felt, and at times outwardly focused on.
“There is an othering, an 'us and them', and I think that's due to stigma and the way that drugs and the people using them are still criminalised and viewed as being a personal moral failing."
When you come to the AOD sector with a background of lived and living experience, Shawnee explains, you're automatically respected on some level.
"Not only do you have integrity to yourself; to your history, your story, there's courage in being visible and identifying. But you [also] have credibility with those you're working with."
Shawnee says only those who have lived experience can truly understand the nuances of AOD work and its impact.
“People who've never experienced the highs, the lows, and all the in-betweens of exploring, experimenting, or having a relationship with drugs don't understand what it's like to live as the "other." They haven't been shamed and judged. They haven't lost way too many friends, way too young.
"Not just anyone can possess that incredibly dark sense of humour or seemingly belly laugh at the worlds injustices like a person who has used drugs. They've walked through fire and came out the other side and lost loved ones on the way."
Community Wisdom
The wisdom Shawnee has borrowed from peers and elders is profound and wide-ranging:
On resourcefulness: "If there is a will, there is a way, and anyone can become an engineer when needed."
On honesty: "Be upfront with how you feel because you never know if you'll see that person or get a chance to say those things again. Take people at face value."
On generosity: "Those with next to nothing have everything too and will share it."
On change: "People won't make meaningful or long-lasting change for anything other than themselves. But nothing changes if nothing changes, not a thing will change until the pain of not [doing so] becomes great enough."
On meeting people where they're at: "The biggest lesson I've learnt is to meet people where they're at and to do so with unconditional positive regard. Don't get offended when someone, regardless of how much you advocate for or relate to them, doesn't gel with you, or even throws you under the bus. Hurt people, hurt people, and not all of us have been taught the skills to break that cycle."
On capacity: "Nobody is ever in the 'too hard basket'. You just may not have what is needed or the skills to reach them, but you could find someone who does."
Nothing About Us Without Us
Why is it important for people in the sector to learn from lived experience?
For Shawnee, the answer is straightforward: "Because the people within this community know what they want, they know themselves best, and they have expertise that cannot be taught unless experienced."
"There is nothing for us, without us. Nothing made for us, without us creating it. No policy, no reform without us consulting on it, or creating it.
“I think involving whoever a service is made for in the creation, implementation, in every step of the way is so important to make meaningful work."
This community has faced so much hardship, Shawnee notes, it's important to have them self-actualise their healing and make meaning from their suffering. Each person does this differently, and that should be celebrated.
Shawnee has been fortunate to serve and be served by plant medicine facilitators from various backgrounds.
"The healing that I have experienced through the use of these powerful medicines has been astounding. What I unpacked in 40 minutes of a session was more than I worked through in 2 years of therapy."
Another piece of wisdom: "I have learnt and been given more from people in this community than any other walk of life,” they say.
“I've learnt that what really matters is our health and our relationships with ourselves and others. Without those we don't really have anything. This wisdom comes from the loss of many comrades, and a wisdom that is felt indelibly to every person in it."
The Challenges of Peer Work
Shawnee is candid about the obstacles they've faced. Stigma and discrimination have always been challenging. Amplify that to include self-stigma and shame, and it becomes a significant hurdle to overcome.
"Personal challenges are as difficult as organisational ones; however external change happens much slower than personal change. So, if you can't change it yet, change your attitude towards it. Trust me, your sanity relies on that haha."
Red Tape and Identity
Red tape around meaningfully identifying has been something Shawnee has come up against time and time again. Even when an organisation says they value lived and living experience, do they really in practice?
"I'm aware that sometimes sharing personal information isn't warranted, I'm aware that it's not about me, it's about who I'm working with.
“But if sharing some part of my story or identifying is a way to establish rapport, build on trust, express to someone that they're not alone in how they feel, or give insight into your experience of something ... why not be able to share that?"
Fabrications and False Allegations
Another challenge Shawnee has experienced is fabrications of events within the field. When working with people experiencing trauma, PTSD, psychosis, or cognitive impairment due to acquired brain injuries, fact from fiction and how things are remembered can become difficult.
"Sometimes people don't have a lot going on that makes them feel good, so they make things up to pass time and cause distress to others they take issue with.
“In a working environment, whether it be a client, or a colleague that you're dealing with, it becomes hard to manage as appropriate processes must be enacted upon, but you still have to remain professional and deliver a service while waiting for it to blow over."
Loss
The hardest challenge? "Clients you have great rapport, or connections with, or even friends and co-peer workers, dying. A very real, unfortunately often occurrence in this field.
“Losing clients is hard. When you spend so much time at work, seeing people multiple times a week, or day even, and then finding out they've overdosed, it's challenging.”
Impact & Looking Forward
When asked about their proudest contributions, Shawnee highlights several recent achievements:
Certificate IV in Lived and Living Experience Peer Work: Sitting as a member of the Peer Participation Group for the first ever nationally recognised Certificate IV in LLE Peer work has been "such a wonderful and meaningful contribution to the AOD field."
AOD Charter of Care: Assisting with updating the Charter has been another proud moment.
Psilocybin Research: Being an Associate Investigator on a trial to treat methamphetamine dependence with psilocybin and talk therapy is something Shawnee is "super proud" of.
NSW Drug Summit: Speaking at the NSW Drug Summit was incredible, despite disappointing outcomes. "I never thought I would find myself being thrown in the deep end, with less than 5 minutes before going on stage to speak to the lack of accountability and representation of our people in front of some of the AOD field's icons and the NSW government. Incredible!"
The Gold in Ordinary Moments
But the story Shawnee holds most closely to their heart happened on an ordinary workday at the NSP. A client came in incredibly depressed, close to tears. They shared their story and what was going on.
"I think we chatted for about an hour and he left with a pep in his step and a smile on his face. It's not the most heroic, life changing, influencing story by far, but the fact he left smiling after we spoke about addiction and shared experiences, stayed with me. That's where the gold is."
Advice for New Peer Workers
For someone just starting out in peer work, Shawnee offers practical wisdom:
Keep something for yourself: "Don't get too disheartened. This work can be tough and a slog and you may find yourself feeling exposed, so it's always good to keep some to yourself. Don't overshare and read the room. Most of the time it's not about us."
Know your limits: "Knowing where your limits are.In knowledge, with boundaries, in experiences etc and sharing them or letting them be known, is a strength, not a weakness or roadblock. Knowing what you don't know and admitting that is a way of minimising harms."
Self-care is essential: "Resource yourself. Self-care is not a buzz word, it is as necessary as resilience is."
Carry Naloxone: "Always, everywhere."
Hopes for the Future
Shawnee's vision for the future of peer work is ambitious and clear.
"I hope that LLE Peer Workers will become mandatory in every AOD workplace, and where not appropriate, they use LLE peers as consultants, and that peers be paid in a way that reflects all of the learning through hardship to gain that invaluable experience and knowledge."
"We may have not all gone to university, but we definitely served our time in the school of hard knocks to get where we are today, and that should be worth something as not everyone can live that."
Peers should be co-creating, co-collaborating, co-directing, co-operating and co-implementing every step of the way.
"Not just the lip service of being appreciated if it comes up but then asked to keep quiet."
What This Recognition Means
When Shawnee received the email about the Hall of Fame recognition, they cried. Those who know them probably wouldn't be surprised, as they admit they wear their emotions openly.
"It means all the hardship, all the hurt and all the loss, the burn out, all the pain, the blood, the sweat, the tears, the visible and invisible scars... the lack of appreciation or thanks have paid off. Just the recognition of this award alone means the world to me."
"All of the advocating, how I've exposed myself and stood metaphorically bare with my heart on my sleeve hasn't been in vain. The effort and time and love put into my work, this field, this community. All of me is grateful."
The recognition is "truly touching," and Shawnee is forever thankful to be listed alongside some of their AOD idols.
"We walk on the shoulders of giants, and I am so honoured I get to carry that torch."