Challenge:

An accomplished Indigenous leader looking to expand their impact

Norman Yakeleya had a history of impressive leadership accomplishments: Chief of the Sahtu Dene, three-term Member of the Legislative Assembly for the Northwest Territories, and chief negotiator for historic land claims settlements.

And, as a residential school survivor who had gone through his own healing journeys, he was keenly aware of the ongoing impact on his people of colonialism and inter-generational trauma.

Norman wanted to have even greater impact and was eager to figure out “what’s next” in expanding his leadership. He thought he might need to reinvent himself.

Solution:

A personal transformation

Participating in Unstoppable’s Being A Leader program, Norman discovered a critical blindspot — a story he created about himself in residential school — which was keeping him from speaking his true hopes and dreams for himself and his people. Having newly transformed his relationship to that trauma, Norma was finally able to say something he’d wanted to say and declared his true purpose in life—
”All Indigenous youth are free from the trauma of the past.” 

He ran for and was elected National Chief of the Dene soon after in the fall of 2018. Under National Chief Yakeleya’s leadership, his team created their own Core Purpose: “Dene Unity is shared with the world.” In collaboration and partnership with 5 Grand Chiefs and 33 Chiefs, the Dene Nation now “speaks with one voice” for the first time since 1969.

As the Dene Nation’s leadership development partner, Unstoppable empowered the first Dene Youth Leadership Council—one woman and one man from each of the 5 Dene regions—when they created the following Core Purpose:

“We exist to create the leaders of the future, youth who say what the future looks like, tackling the social issues of today to create a better tomorrow, protecting youth and providing pathways out of generational trauma. Youth are proud to be Dene.”

Results:

Impacting Chiefs, Grand Chiefs, Prime Ministers, and Popes

This continuing expansion of transformation and purpose created the following results—

33 Nations unified for the first time in 50 years

A new “nation to nation” relationship with the Government of Canada that shifted how negotiations and collaboration took place.

A 10x increase in funding for emergency Covid-19 response, and a Dene led On The Land program.  

In 2021 National Chief Yakeleya, in his role as chair of the residential schools portfolio for the Assembly of First Nations, completed negotiations with the Canadian College of Catholic Bishops for the AFN to meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican, which resulted in the 2022 Papal visit to Canada where the Pope apologized for the Catholic Church’s role in residential schools.