Larissa Crawford
Cultural Connectivity: Promoting Blackness through successful entrepreneurship
Day 2 Panel
Larissa Crawford proudly passes on Métis and Jamaican ancestry to her daughter, Zyra, and is a published Indigenous, anti-racism, and climate justice researcher, policy advisor, and restorative circle keeper with over 15 years of experience.
Larissa’s 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 positions her to carry out her responsibilities as a future ancestor with unique insight and consideration. The perspectives she carries and amplifies are frequently undervalued, and as of late, her role at Future Ancestors Services Inc. has become her most significant vessel of action in response to this reality.
Larissa is also the Founder of Future Ancestors Services, an Indigenous and Black-owned, youth-led professional services social enterprise that advances climate justice and systemic barrier removal with lenses of anti-racism and ancestral accountability. Through a disabled and queer team of professionals and advisors, they provide speaking, training, research and consulting services, and influencer and interview services to +400 diverse clients. They do this while centering decolonized and Indigenized practices, and are constantly reimagining how we can learn, relate, and work together in healthy ways.
In 2022 Larissa was honoured with the York University One to Watch Alumni Award, in Complex Canada’s 20 Creators Who Will Shape the Next 20 Years of The Culture, and in 2020-21 in Women of Influence’s Top 25 list; in Refinery Canada’s 29 Powerhouses; as York University’s Top 30 Under 30 Alumni; in HuffPost’s 26 Indigenous Influencers to Follow; and with the Pollution Probe Equity in Sustainability Award. She supports international brands such as Merrell, Nike, and The Body Shop, in better serving and representing her communities.
