Mobilizing the Indigenous Housing and Homelands Governance Toolkit

Learn about the challenges First Nations often face in accessing sustainable and culturally relevant housing, and how an Indigenous Housing and Homelands Governance Toolkit aims to address them. The toolkit was created in 2021-2022 by the Indigenous Homelands Initiative at Ecotrust Canada in collaboration with several First Nations partners. The toolkit explores “outside the colonial box” approaches to help remove systemic barriers that prevent First Nations people from accessing sustainable and culturally relevant housing. This project expanded the reach of the toolkit by working with the Xeni Gwet’in First Nation and Nuxalk Nation. 

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Project scope and expected outcomes

Toolkit shares alternative approaches to housing policies

First Nations often face many challenges in accessing sustainable and culturally relevant housing. The Indigenous Homelands Program collaborated with several First Nations partners in 2021–2022 to address the challenges, identifying new and culturally appropriate systems of land renting and ownership. The project assumed that Indigenous values, principles, jurisdiction and legal orders can support innovative mechanisms for lands and housing developments. 

The result led to developing an Indigenous Housing and Homelands Governance Toolkit. The toolkit is a series of modules exploring “outside of the colonial box” approaches to Indigenous housing governance. It was designed to support First Nations in understanding the possibilities for culturally legitimate housing and lands governance. This particularly related to the context of Aboriginal title lands, modern treaty lands and other emerging jurisdictions in British Columbia.

This project worked directly with First Nations partners to launch, revise and expand the toolkit through community-driven activities, workshops and stakeholder meetings. A digital marketing strategy promoted the toolkit and made it accessible to all Indigenous people in Canada through Ecotrust Canada at homelandstoolkit.ca

The project also created opportunities for First Nations to be involved in cooperative housing discussions with governments, public agencies and financial institutions. New connections were made with the Aboriginal Savings Corporation of Canada, the National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association and VanCity.

The toolkit in action

Indigenous communities incorporated the toolkit into long-term holistic housing strategies based on cultural and climatic needs. For example, in the Northwest Territories, the Gwich’in First Nation is using the toolkit module on Community Land Trusts to support their governance work. The Xeni Gwet’in are looking at land tenure and Aboriginal Title. And a new long-term holistic housing strategy is being developed with the Nuxalk Nation, using toolkit modules on housing governance.

Additional plans include:

• sharing the toolkit more widely through a six-month digital campaign
• digitizing the toolkit with infographics, maps and short videos, combined with robust public education
• facilitating discussions within the Indigenous housing sector on a more community-led Indigenous housing system
• collecting and evaluating feedback from people who use the toolkit

Download the final report