Larissa Crawford
2024 KeynoteAward-Winning Anti-Racism and Indigenous Researcher | Entrepreneur
Larissa Crawford proudly passes on Métis and Jamaican ancestry to her children, Zyra and Ātea, and is a published Indigenous, anti-racism, and climate justice researcher, policy advisor, and restorative circle keeper with over 15 years of experience.
A channel of Larissa's impact is enacted through her role as Founder and Managing Director of Future Ancestors Services, a next-generation speakers bureau. Future Ancestors Services is a small social enterprise that has emerged as an industry leader in connecting clients and audiences with diverse entrepreneurs offering speaking and training services, with over 400 clients across Canada and internationally. Specializing in community impact, sustainability, Indigenization, disability, and more, the voices they represent are charting futures that inherently respond to our most pressing systemic challenges.
Larissa's journey in education and career have demonstrated expertise in climate policy and research, energy systems and policy, race-based data collection, restorative practice and conflict resolution, and decolonization and Indigenization in the workplace. This expertise is profoundly shaped by the qualifications borne from her lived experience as an Indigenous and Black woman; a survivor of sexual violence and poverty; a person living with chronic pain disabilities and brain damage; having lived in both rural and urban settings; and as a young mother of two.
Beyond her role as a labourer, Larissa is an avid rock climber and native plant enthusiast deeply connected to Kananaskis Country, on the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy (comprising Siksika, Piikani and Kainai First Nations), the Tsuut'ina First Nation, and the Stoney Nakoda First Nation.