AFN Women’s Council Representative

Carissa Waugh is a Kwanlin Dün First Nation (KDFN) citizen through her parents, Charlene and Charles Waugh, and her late grandparents, Linda and Allan Waugh. Carissa is part of the crow clan, and her traditional Northern Tutchone name is Ékè Éwe meaning “Caribou Hoof Noise,” after her Great-Grandma Emma Shorty.

As an avid beader, Carissa recently finished the Yukon First Nations Art Certificate Program at Yukon University, where she learned new art forms to build her beading business Ékè Éwe Art and promote her work on social media. Carissa’s work has been featured at the Adäka Cultural Festival and Yúk’e Arts Market.

Carissa was selected as a Fellow in the first cohort of the Yukon First Nations Climate Action Fellowship with youth across the Yukon and Northern BC to address the impact of climate change and develop a youth-led climate vision, the Reconnection Vision Action Plan. She graduated from the fellowship (the Children of Tomorrow) in February 2023 and continues to be an activist for Climate Change/Action, Every Child Matters, Reconciliation, and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, and 2Spirit People.

Currently, Carissa is working with the Northern Council for Global Cooperation as the Project and Event Coordinator and sitting on the KDFN’s McIntyre, Crow, and Swan Neighborhood Committee and KDFN’s Whitehorse Water-Use Relicensing Project Community Advisory Committee.