Meet our YSI Presenters – Katłįà Lafferty

Over the next few weeks, we will be introducing you to our guest speakers for this year’s Youth Services Institute. First up, please meet Katłįà Lafferty.

“I was raised by my grandparents after being brought back home from being apprehended by the child welfare system. I am a mother of three children, who raised them most of their life as a single mother except for my eldest child who I gave up for adoption. My son is 19 and on his own, he’s a fire fighter in the summer and a dog musher in the winter. Both of my daughters are artists. I am a survivor of intergenerational trauma and am second generation out of the bush in the NWT as my grandmother was born in a teepee tent. I am working on overcoming PTSD from sexual violence and intimate partner violence. I am the author of 4 novels. One of which is a memoir. One that is about Dene legends and one about the colonial housing system in the north. I am in the process of working on a fictional novel about healing through nurturing the inner child to heal. I have worked full time through law school and paid my way through without assistance from family because I grew up in poverty and am the first person in my family to graduate with a degree in law. I am a strong advocate for adequate housing and Indigenous rights which includes looking into the lens of climate change from an Indigenous perspective.”

The YSI will be over Zoom on Thursday, April 20th, 2023, from 9:30 am to 2:30 pm (Pacific time). For more information about registration please go here.