A vexatious shapeshifter walks among humans. Shadowy beasts skulk at the edges of the woods. A ghostly apparition haunts a lonely stretch of highway. Spirits and legends rise and join together to protect the north.

Land-Water-Sky/Ndè-Tı-Yat’a is the debut novel from Dene author Katłıà. Set in Canada’s far north, this layered composite novel traverses space and time, from a community being stalked by a dark presence, a group of teenagers out for a dangerous joyride, to an archeological site on a mysterious island that holds a powerful secret.

Riveting, subtle, and unforgettable, Katłıà gives us a unique perspective into what the world might look like today if Indigenous legends walked amongst us, disguised as humans, and ensures that the spiritual significance and teachings behind the stories of Indigenous legends are respected and honored.

We acknowledge the support of Arts Nova Scotia.

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