Born into a nomadic family in 1944, Tshaukuesh was a leader of the Innu campaign against NATO low level flying and weapons testing on Innu land in the 1980s and 90s. She had learned to write in Innu-aimun as a child and began keeping diaries systematically to document what was happening during the campaign. Her diaries were translated into English and published in 2019 as a book, Nitinikiau Innusi: I Keep the Land Alive (University of Manitoba Press), for which she was shortlisted for NL Reads, the Winterset Award and a Manitoba Book Award. She is well known as a cultural and environmental activist. For many years, she led an annual weeks-long spring walk on traditional Innu hunting trails and a summer canoe trip on the Mista-shipu to teach people about Innu culture and respect for the land. Tshaukuesh's work has been recognized by a National Aboriginal Achievement award, honorary doctorates from Memorial University and Queen's University, a YWCA Woman of Distinction award, and numerous media interviews and profiles, articles and consultations. She likes to feel the moss and the forest floor beneath her feet. She believes the spirits of her ancestors are still there in the forest and that she has a responsibility to them as well as to future generations. She will never give up her work protecting the animals, the trees, the children and everything in the circle of life.