Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

One thing everyone agrees on is that First Nations housing and infrastructure on reserves is less than adequate and is sorely in need of fundamental transformation.

How to transform the faulty system and what a new system should look like are the challenges we face. The FNHIC is committed to creating a new system that is built by First Nations for First Nations. We cannot achieve that goal without widespread support and participation from First Nations people. To that end from June 2020 to February 2021 we spoke directly to hundreds of people and to many more through online surveys, written submissions, and emails. The details varied but all points of view were expressed with passion and a solid commitment to improving current housing and infrastructure conditions in First Nations in BC. We want to recognize and honour each and every one who took part in the engagement process. We acknowledge the First Nations that freed up their staff to give valuable time to participate in the feedback sessions. We give special recognition to our presenters, experts in their fields, who shared important information on our webinars. And finally those who participated in our targeted sessions—elders, youth, women, people living away from home, young people aging out of care, people with disabilities, 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals, young parents—all with deep meaningful knowledge that exposed the complexity of housing and the need to build a different system.

As many people reminded us, houses and infrastructure is about more than a roof overhead, it is about family, culture, community, well-being, connection to land and inhabiting a good space. In the words of one respondent, “Our approach going forward must be wholistic spelled with a W.” We found out that at the heart of our quest was the need to rethink the idea of housing and infrastructure and to approach our work as building opportunities for First Nations people to have a home—a safe place to nurture their families.

We thank all the participants in our Phase 3 engagement activities, acknowledge the FNHIC engagement team and recognize the contributors to this report: Sylvia Olsen, writer; Lory Oberst, data; Courtenay Crane, photography; Shanaya Nelson, editing; Desiree Bender, design; Doug Lafortune, art.

Engagement Team

• Team Lead, Sylvia Olsen • Team Lead, Kerry Black; • Media and Communications Manager,

Courtenay Crane • Engagement Coordinator: Lory Oberst • Regional Engagement Coordinators (RECs):

Marilyn Johnny, Malmalek’alas, Kwakiutl First Nation

Beverly Smith, Samahquam First Nation

Niki Lindstrom, Tugnum, Saulteau First Nation

Mona Bill, Tseycum First Nation

Doug Harris, tulxwelum, Stz’uminus First Nations