In her first work of fiction, Katłįà immerses the reader in the mystical worlds of the spiritual and human. She expertly explores the powerful and moving ideas of past legends with today’s values in a way that brings respect and honour to her Indigenous knowledge. Mysterious sightings, shapeshifting ghosts, horrific beasts, missing and murdered individuals haunting the Northern highways, and powerful secrets keep the reader enthralled and engaged. Her captivating story is set in the beautiful North with clear descriptions of her land, represented by fictional Nàejì Island. She interweaves Wıı̀lıı̀deh language throughout the novel to thoughtfully describe people and nature. Katłįà challenges us to unite the old ways and teachings with the world today. | Shortlisted for the 2021 Indigenous Voices Awards.
Caution: Some violence, including murder.

186 pp., 5.5 × 8.5"

Katłįà – Catherine Lafferty (Dene)

Source: Association of Book Publishers of BC - Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools (2021-2022)

Katłıà is a northern Dene novelist specializing in intellectual property law with a focus on mitigating cultural appropriation and creating empowering Indigenous storytelling narratives. Katłįà’s northern homeland and matrilineal lineage inform her storytelling. She is the author of novels This House Is Not a Home and Land-Water-Sky / Ndè-Tı-Yat’a and a memoir, Northern Wildflower, written as Catherine Lafferty. Katłįà is a member of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation from Somba K’e (Yellowknife), Northwest Territories. She currently splits her time between her northern homeland and the occupied and unceded lands of the Coast Salish peoples in lək̓ʷəŋən territory, where she graduated from the University of Victoria with the double law degree Juris Indigenarum Doctor and Juris Doctor. Katłįà is the co-chair of the National Indigenous Housing Network and the Women’s National Housing and Homelessness Network and is working on a constitutional charter rights court challenge for Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people for the right to adequate housing.

Katłıà's profile page

• Winner, NorthWords Book Award (Adult)
• Short-listed, Indigenous Voices Awards - Fiction (English)

“This book brought a lot of memory for me when Elders used to tell stories sitting around and visiting my parents and telling stories about nąhgąą. The story was so descriptive the way the Elders told stories. I related to all the events of the story because its very similar to the stories I’ve heard. Mahsı Cho for keeping our stories alive.”

Maro Sundberg, Executive Director at Goyatiko Language Society

“In the era of pre-contact, ancient stories were deeply engrained in the landscape from which it derives from. They inspire traditional storytellers to pass onto current times, a frame to support today’s tellings and in this writing, it’s an extension too snippets of stories heard, the collisions of changing times of life in the raw, taking many forms of intrigue, an ongoing tradition, a shapeshifting.”

John B. Zoe, traditional knowledge holder from Tlicho Territory, Senior Advisor with the Tłı̨chǫ Government, Chairperson of Dedats’eetsaa: the Tłı̨chǫ Research & Training Institute

Katlıa has created a masterpiece that brilliantly weaves intriguing characters, history, culture, love for the land, water and sky into a riveting and magnificent read.

Monique Gray Smith, author of Tilly and the Crazy Eights