Behchoko's wise woman
Lucy Lafferty to be honoured during March 8 ceremony
Kassina Ryder
Northern News Services
Saturday, March 4, 2017
BEHCHOKO/RAE EDZO
When Behchoko's Lucy Lafferty picked up the phone and was told she was one of this year's Wise Women award winners, she thought someone was playing a trick on her.
Lucy Lafferty of Behchoko is one of this year's Wise Women award winners from the Status of Women Council NWT. Lafferty, an educator and Tlicho Language Culture Co-ordinator for the Tlicho Government, will receive her award during a ceremony in Yellowknife on March 8. - photo courtesy of Sheila Bishop
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"I thought somebody was playing a prank on me," Lafferty said. "My kids like to play jokes on me."
But it was no joke. Lafferty's work in her community earned her one of the six awards to be presented during a ceremony in Yellowknife on March 8.
The Status of Women Council NWT gives the awards to deserving women annually.
"Wise Women recipients are role models who demonstrate wisdom, perseverance and dedication while standing up for women, children and families in our communities," a press release from the council said. "They strive to make the North a better place to live, work and raise a family."
Lafferty has been an educator for many years. She started as an education assistant at Chief Jimmy Bruneau School before taking the Teacher Education Program (TEP) at Aurora College in Fort Smith. She taught for a few years then went on to get her master's degree from the University of Saskatoon. From there she became the vice principal and then principal of Elizabeth Mackenzie Elementary School.
Before she applied for the job, she visited with Elizabeth Mackenzie, the school's namesake, to tell her she was thinking of applying for the principal position.
Mackenzie told Lafferty she supported the idea.
"I felt like I wanted to cry," Lafferty said. "I was honoured to hear her say something like that."
Lafferty later became the director of education for the Tlicho Community Services Agency and then the cultural co-ordinator for the Tlicho Research and Training Institute. In 2011, she was inducted into the Department of Education, Culture and Employment's Education Hall of Fame.
She is now the Tlicho Government's Tlicho language culture co-ordinator.
During her time as an educator, Lafferty helped develop the Dene Kede Curriculum, which is now used in schools to teach Dene language and culture.
Lafferty said she knew how much she had lost culturally when she returned home from residential school and was especially anxious about how the community's older women would view her.
"Being separated from my community for almost 13 years and not having interaction too much with community people, when I came back I was sort of afraid of them, the older ladies in the community," she said. "I lost a lot of my language, a lot of my culture and traditional things that people my age, girls my age, should have been able to do."
But Lafferty took it upon herself to pick up what she had missed. She spent time with local elders and improved her language and traditional skills.
"You don't need to feel ashamed if you don't have those skills. The elders used to say, 'you watch, you look', that's how you teach yourself," she said. "It's not often that people will have time to show you and teach you anything, but then you have to be the one to say 'this is what is important to me. I want to learn it'."
Now, Lafferty is the one passing knowledge to the next generation.
"I have six children, 17 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren," she said. "I love them so much, it just makes me want to do more so whatever I know, I can make sure I pass it on to them."
Though she's now an elder herself, Lafferty shows no signs of slowing down. In addition to her work with the Tlicho Government, she is also a member of the St. Michael's Parish council in Behchoko.
Lafferty, an avid reader, said she believes the next step to promoting language and culture is to publish novels and chapter books written in Tlicho.
"That's what I want to see, is to have people write books in our language," she said. "I would just love to see that."
Lafferty and the other Wise Women Award winners will be honoured during a celebration at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife at 7 p.m. on March 8.
