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Mother Earth Is Our Elder: A Northern Indigenous Path Toward Sustainable Living
Award-winning Dene activist and writer Katlia teaches us Indigenous ways to protect Mother Earth from destruction.
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 innovating sustainable resources, 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 on the subject of climate change to answer the calls for help. Adhering proudly to these responsibilities and values, Katlia (pronounced cat-lee-ah) writes a Dene manifesto fit to address the state of emergency we’re in. Informed by Katlia's decades-long award-winning work and advocacy as a writer and activist, and her life experiences as a Dene woman from the north, this book achieves global relevance by focusing on the local.
This is ancient information, but it’s new to those outside the Dene community, and Katlia's voice channels our collective energy toward surprisingly simple scalable solutions such
sustainable, ethical food sources as a path toward food sovereignty intermittent renewables and innovative alternatives to heat and power homes housing systems incorporating green technologies into cultural ways of knowing that include living off grid cultural burning to mitigate out of control wildfires With evidence of how this all works for the Dene people, we see how it might work for us as well. This generous, pragmatic, and hopeful book shows us how to find coexistence with Mother Earth and embrace the wisdom of our local Indigenous communities.
Mother Earth Is Our Elder features 10 original black-and-white photographs.
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 innovating sustainable resources, 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 on the subject of climate change to answer the calls for help. Adhering proudly to these responsibilities and values, Katlia (pronounced cat-lee-ah) writes a Dene manifesto fit to address the state of emergency we’re in. Informed by Katlia's decades-long award-winning work and advocacy as a writer and activist, and her life experiences as a Dene woman from the north, this book achieves global relevance by focusing on the local.
This is ancient information, but it’s new to those outside the Dene community, and Katlia's voice channels our collective energy toward surprisingly simple scalable solutions such
sustainable, ethical food sources as a path toward food sovereignty intermittent renewables and innovative alternatives to heat and power homes housing systems incorporating green technologies into cultural ways of knowing that include living off grid cultural burning to mitigate out of control wildfires With evidence of how this all works for the Dene people, we see how it might work for us as well. This generous, pragmatic, and hopeful book shows us how to find coexistence with Mother Earth and embrace the wisdom of our local Indigenous communities.
Mother Earth Is Our Elder features 10 original black-and-white photographs.
384 pages, Hardcover
Published April 14, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 20, 2026
Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of the audiobook!
There were a lot of things that I liked about this book, but ultimately some of it didn't hit quite right for me. I think Lafferty does a great job with narrating it, and I love to hear an author read their own audiobook. The book as a whole felt a bit disconnected--I liked all of the pieces and stories individually, but it was hard sometimes to see the connections between different parts. I do think the messaging of the book is important, but I'm not sure it fully lives up to what it was trying to do
There were a lot of things that I liked about this book, but ultimately some of it didn't hit quite right for me. I think Lafferty does a great job with narrating it, and I love to hear an author read their own audiobook. The book as a whole felt a bit disconnected--I liked all of the pieces and stories individually, but it was hard sometimes to see the connections between different parts. I do think the messaging of the book is important, but I'm not sure it fully lives up to what it was trying to do
May 4, 2026
This is a climate change must read from an Indigenous (specifically Dene) perspective, geographically focused on the North of Canada (though applicable broadly everywhere). The author writes truthfully, honestly, and in an incredibly accessible way, making this both interesting and inspiring. Information is presented as various personal stories and teachings from a variety of elders, Indigenous community members, and the author herself. The messaging is clear and important, and we all need to read and listen and act before it's too late. I appreciated listening to the audiobook, narrated by the author, for the expert pronounciations, and I felt listening to the author added a meaningful personal connection to the information and stories. I highly recommend this to everyone!
Thank you to Libro.fm and McClelland & Stewart for the Audiobook Listening Copy.
Thank you to Libro.fm and McClelland & Stewart for the Audiobook Listening Copy.
April 8, 2026
The environmental discussion aspects are interesting and insightful. sometimes it strays away to loosely connected topics later on, though, and those topics don't quite work. 4 stars. tysm for the E-ARC.
April 15, 2026
5⭐️
Fully agree with the arguments made in this book. The only way we will survive the climate crisis is by using tried and tested methods—one’s that Indigenous people the world over have used for tens of thousands for years.
Fully agree with the arguments made in this book. The only way we will survive the climate crisis is by using tried and tested methods—one’s that Indigenous people the world over have used for tens of thousands for years.
Did Not Finish
May 15, 2026DNF about 50% of the way through
June 21, 2026
Excellent book. At times hard to listen and a little frightening but I suppose that’s the point.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews