Active House to Passive House: Three Approaches to the Indigenous Housing Crisis
By Toby Davine, PBC
Indigenous peoples in Canada are experiencing a full-blown housing crisis. For many who live on-reservation, overcrowding, rampant mould, pest infestations, and crumbling homes have become the norm.
Though many Nations face similar issues, their approaches to addressing their housing concerns vary. I spoke with individuals from three First Nations that are building homes that seek to reduce environmental impact and improve community wellbeing to learn more about their work.
Grassroots Action in Opaskwayak Cree Nation
Dr. Alex Wilson is from the Opaskwayak Cree Nation, situated in northern Manitoba. She is a professor with the Department of Educational Foundations and the Academic Director of the Aboriginal Education Research Centre at the University of Saskatchewan. She is also an active organizer with One House Many Nations, a campaign of the Idle No More movement.
As Professor Wilson explains, the roots of the housing crisis lie in the ongoing process of colonialism. In addition to Europeans seizing and settling Indigenous land, housing has been a key process in the targeted assimilative process against Indigenous peoples.
Today, laws and policies regarding Indigenous peoples in Canada continue to contribute to keeping them in poverty.
“Because of the building code, you can’t take a tree, saw it and use it to make a house. That’s one of the things we’re challenging as well. Who comes up with these codes? They don’t serve Indigenous communities.” Opaskwayak Cree Nation is rich in forests, but many of their trees are cut down and extracted for outside purposes.
Wilson describes that homes on reservations are typically constructed by outside builders that often fall apart right away and get black mould.
Given the systemic nature of the crisis, Professor Wilson and co-organizers with One House Many Nations are raising awareness about the housing crisis among Indigenous communities and pressuring the government to honour treaty and human rights. Their approach in doing so continues to evolve.
The group started by building a small, stick frame house in Big River First Nation, Saskatchewan. Through crowdfunding and widespread community support, the house was built (mostly by women) and was completely off-grid, with a compost toilet and powered by solar energy and heated with a wood stove.
Since then, their focus has shifted to a more holistic approach to the housing problem. “We really want a village model so it’s a whole system, not just one individual house,” Wilson explains.
The group now also includes architects, builders, academics, and students across North America, but some of the most critical knowledge has been shared by elders and members of the community in Opaskwayak Cree Nation.
“We’re trying to keep the same principles of housing pre-colonization. The houses might not physically look the same as in the past, but the principles are the same,” explains Wilson.
The village model will feature 4 to 6 smaller units and a communal area were the community can share things that not everybody needs, like a washer/dryer, a full-sized kitchen, a full-sized bathroom with a bathtub, a communal eating space, an outdoor space for processing meat and fish, and a community garden.
“We’re building active houses, instead of passive, explains Professor Wilson. “There’s that relational core to it that is central to Indigenous knowledge. We’re trying to recreate a living tree or entity; a house that can breathe, where air can move through it.”
Though Professor Wilson and the team did look at passive house as a possibility for their housing designs, she explains that the types of material and its linkages to Indigenous peoples were more important. For example, they want to avoid using plastic or metal.
“Where does this material come from? Does it comes from Indigenous territory? Is it being imported from China or overseas? What’s the global impact?” she says.
In their current housing project, they are using locally sourced products like cross-laminated timber from local spruce, which is more breathable and less susceptible to mould. The shell is constructed by volunteers in the community and the utility corps will be built by a specialised team offsite. Wilson explains that due to a limited building season, this was the most efficient way to build the homes while still employing local workers.
Net-Zero in the Cree Nation of Eastmain
The Cree Nation of Eastmain (CNE) is a small community located on the east coast of James Bay that is experiencing a critical housing shortage.
Last year CNE applied for a large grant through the federal government’s Smart Cities Challenge to develop “an affordable, culturally-appropriate Net Zero Energy (NZE) housing program,” as described in their proposal. Although CNE did not ultimately win the challenge, Housing Director Stanley Gilpin explains that they will still continue with the project.
This summer they are undertaking a pilot project: a one-unit, net-zero, accessible space and one retrofit. With the help of researchers at Concordia University, they hope to collect data on air quality, air flow, and energy usage to see how they can improve and make changes in order to reach net-zero energy. Next summer they hope to build row houses.
The homes will be built using a double wall system, 12 to 18 inches, with cellulose insulation.
“There’s cost savings for tenants in the long run [due to] the reduced consumption of hydro electricity and for building the unit. The plan was to install solar panels for each,” says Gilpin.
By working with a local retail supplier in the region, they were also able to cut costs by using materials they did not sell in their auctions.
While the project has received support from architects and builders steeped in the high-performance building trade, it was important for the CNE to build capacity among local workers to create a self-sustaining housing system.
“We will be doing training with local workers to learn how to build to this NZE standard,” says Gilpin.