Northern Wildflower: A Memoir

Catherine Lafferty, a Dene woman raised in the Yellowknife area, recounts how her childhood and youth were shaped by the trauma her family members suffered since colonization. She was removed from her alcoholic parents and raised by her grandparents, and describes how, as a young woman, she experienced drug and alcohol abuse, physical and sexual violence, and broken relationships, and how she turned her life around through determination to get an education and create a positive future for her children. This powerful memoir is suitable for a literature circle in grades 11-12 and will allow students to see the impact of government actions and policies and inter-generational trauma on Indigenous girls and women.