Mother Earth Is Our Elder

A Northern Indigenous Perspective on the Climate Crisis

By: Catherine (Katlia) Lafferty

Narrated by: Catherine (Katlia) Lafferty

Award-winning Dene activist and writer Katłı̨̀ą teaches us Indigenous ways to protect and learn from Mother Earth.

The Dene in Canada’s Northwest Territories have lived alongside nature for many generations. From battling environmental racism on the front lines of historical environmental protests to living a balanced life through effective individual and collective governance, the Dene have long protected Mother Earth from destruction through their intricate knowledge systems, natural laws, and age-old principles.

Now more than ever, institutions and citizens alike are seeking out and relying on the resilience of Indigenous knowledge systems to help solve the climate crisis. This book brings together a diverse group of Dene Elders and knowledge carriers on the subject of climate change to answer the calls for help. Adhering proudly to these responsibilities and values, Katłı̨̀ą writes a Dene manifesto fit to address the state of emergency we’re in.

With evidence of how this all works for the Dene people, we see how it might work for us all. This generous, pragmatic, and hopeful book shows us how to find coexistence with Mother Earth and embrace the wisdom of our local Indigenous communities.

Critic reviews

Praise for Katłı̨̀ą and Mother Earth Is Our Elder

“Through her writing, Katłı̨̀ą gifts us strong medicine from the North, transforming our relationship with climate change from the abstract into the voice of a stern and caring Elder—our Mother Earth. Through the stories of her Dene Elders and knowledge keepers, she leaves us not only with warnings, but with the hopeful reminder that the solutions already live within the lived memory of the Peoples of the land.” —Dr. Jennifer Grenz, author of Medicine Wheel for the Planet

"In this urgent and generous manifesto, Katłı̨̀ą gathers the voices of Dene Elders and knowledge keepers into a shared testimony that names the climate crisis for what it is: a breaking of reciprocity and a forgetting of the Earth as relation. Mother Earth Is Our Elder gently reminds us that nothing is fixed when we choose to act together for one another and for the land that holds us. A beautiful, life-centred book." —Kyo Maclear, author of Unearthing: A Story of Tangled Love and Family Secrets